SNP submits bill, calls for ban on social media for children under 13

Socialist People's Party (SNP) MPs Slađana Kaluđerović and Bogdan Božović submitted to the parliamentary procedure the Bill on the Protection of Minors in the Digital Environment, which provides for a ban on social networks for children under the age of 13 and parental verification for those aged 13 to 16.

Kaluđerović states that 73 percent of children aged nine to 15 have profiles on social networks, while every third child has experienced digital violence.

The law also provides for a ban on manipulative, sexualized, and "deepfake" content featuring children, as well as measures against internet predators.

"We don't want our children to be internet addicts, to create generations of zombies who will only look at their phones and play games because they have lost touch with reality somewhere and are not capable of real life, to run, to do a push-up, to change a light bulb tomorrow, to socialize, and in the process, everything also affects the physical health of children - their spine, obesity, vision. The second dimension, which is less visible, is that social networks for children represent a special world that parents have no insight into, even when they think they do, and where they are exposed to various internet predators and other risks that children are unable to recognize," said MP Kaluđerović.