Cyprus’s Cabinet has approved an Action Plan to protect children online, setting a minimum “digital age of majority” of 15 for social media use and shifting responsibility for verifying users’ ages onto the platforms themselves. The plan, approved on Wednesday, applies to services that function as social media: platforms where users create profiles, publish content, and interact publicly.
Under the plan’s first pillar, the government proposes setting that minimum age nationally, below which access to social media would not be allowed. The relevant bill will go to public consultation in the coming period, with the aim of submitting it to the House of Representatives for a vote in December.
The platforms themselves would carry the main compliance burden, required to install reliable age-verification mechanisms, incorporating a proposed EU solution once it is finalised. Before the bill is finalised, a Child Rights Impact Assessment on the proposed age limit will take place, alongside public consultation through the “Voice of the Citizen” platform and organised dialogue with youth organisations and other relevant bodies.
The plan’s second pillar involves developing a digital age-verification mechanism modelled on the European Commission’s proposed EU Age Verification Blueprint. The mechanism will be integrated within the coming year into the “Digital Citizen” app, letting users prove they meet the required age without sharing other personal data.
The third pillar focuses on education and public awareness among children, parents and teachers. It includes a gradual restructuring of curricula across all levels of education to add units on safe and creative internet use, alongside an update to the Informatics curriculum in secondary and technical education.
It also provides for training for all teachers on safe and creative internet use, specialised training for secondary technical and vocational education teachers, and training for counselling and vocational-guidance teachers to incorporate these issues into their pedagogical and counselling work.
And it sets out targeted campaigns, seminars and workshops to inform and raise awareness among students, parents and teachers about protecting children online, emerging risks, and responsible use of digital technology.
Officials described the plan as a significant decision, moving from identifying a major social challenge to advancing a concrete, comprehensive framework for addressing it. Some 98% of young people in Cyprus actively use social media, according to the data cited, the highest rate in the EU. Yet they record low scores in critical information-evaluation skills.
The announcement also cited data from international organisations linking increased social media use to addictive behaviour traits, neglect of other activities, conflict with those close to the user, and other negative effects on daily life. It said international experience shows child protection online can no longer rely solely on platforms’ self-regulation or on the individual responsibility of young people or parents.
The Action Plan also envisages further study on the permanent, long-term operation of the Safe Internet Centre’s services, and the creation of mechanisms for reporting and responding to related incidents.
The government said success requires cooperation from the state, the education community, parents, civil society and the digital platforms themselves, which it called on to implement substantive and effective measures to protect children. It described child safety, rights and wellbeing as a non-negotiable priority.
The government described the plan as dynamic, saying implementation would be monitored and updated alongside technological and EU-level developments, and that it was moving ahead immediately and consistently with implementation so that every child could use the possibilities of the digital world safely, knowledgeably and with genuine protection.
