New Regulations Could See U16 Teenagers Banned From Social Media

The European Parliament may pass new regulations meaning that teenagers under 16 will need parental permission to join social media sites. In a last-minute amendment to new rules on data protection, the new regulations would mean that it would be illegal for companies to handle data from anyone aged 15 or under without parental consent. According to the Financial Times, if companies fail to comply with these regulations under the new law, they will face fines of up to 4 per cent global turnover. Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast this morning, editor of Silicon Republic Elaine Burke questioned how effective these regulations would be and aired her doubts about companies like Facebook's abilities to police these rules. She said: "They try and find out if your profile isn't real - like if you're representing a wrong person - and they have shut down profiles for those reasons. "They have a real name policy that annoys a lot of people because they have to go by their real name on Facebook - so they are checking accounts for activities that are going against what they say they are". "So they probably could invest some algorithm to track whether you#re 13 or 16 - but at the end of the day you could just say 'Oh well my mam said I could sign up to it'". Lawmakers will vote on this issue on Thursday.