The Uruguayan Parliament is analyzing a bill that proposes prohibiting the use of social media for those under 15 years old, a controversial initiative promoted by opposition deputy Felipe Schipani from the Colorado Party, which suggests new restrictions on children's and adolescents' access to these platforms.
The proposal establishes that companies must implement mechanisms to prevent minors from creating, maintaining, reactivating, or using personal accounts. In this way, the initiative seeks to shift the responsibility of controlling access for users under 15 years old to social media providers.
The project states that the measure aims to “protect the physical and mental health, integral development, privacy, security, and rights of children and adolescents against the risks of social media services.”
However, the proposal advances a broad restriction on minors' access to these platforms. The text indicates that providers operating in Uruguay must adopt “reasonable, proportionate, effective, and auditable” measures to prevent individuals under fifteen from creating, maintaining, reactivating, or using personal accounts.
The initiative also includes a scheme of sanctions for companies and other obligated parties that fail to comply with the provisions. Penalties will be determined considering factors such as the severity of the violation, its recurrence, the number of affected users, the benefit obtained, economic capacity, and the level of cooperation.
The regime ranges from a warning to fines of nearly USD 1 million, in addition to the possibility of suspending the platform. At the same time, the text clarifies that parents or guardians of minors will not have civil or criminal liability for non-compliance with the prohibition.
The Argument for Advancing Censorship
In the rationale for the initiative, Schipani argues that the technological changes recorded over the last 15 years have created a “new challenge” for the protection system of children and adolescents in Uruguay.
“Social media has ceased to be mere communication tools and has become permanent environments for socialization, entertainment, information, and consumption. Its architecture is not neutral: it is designed to capture attention, prolong time spent, collect data, predict behaviors, and offer personalized content (…) When that user is a child or adolescent, the asymmetry is especially intense,” argued the Colorado legislator.
From his perspective, the project seeks to delay minors' entry into platforms that he considers especially influential during a developmental stage. Schipani argues that the obligations should fall on the companies that “design and manage the platforms,” with the aim of “delaying entry into highly persuasive commercial environments during a particularly vulnerable stage.”
The deputy believes that the approval of the initiative would allow for providing adolescents with “reasoned conditions of privacy and security.”
Among the arguments used to support the prohibition, the legislator lists various risks associated with social media use, including cyberbullying, “sexual grooming,” sextortion, the dissemination of intimate images, and identity theft.
He also warns that algorithms can "favor" the circulation of content related to self-harm, suicide, eating disorders, violence, hate, drugs, gambling, and dangerous challenges.
The Reference to Other Countries
To justify the controversial initiative, the deputy also mentions international experiences. Among them is Australia, which established a minimum age of 16 to maintain accounts on platforms, while also noting the debate taking place in France.
