Norway is moving ahead with plans to prevent children under 15 from using social media, with technology companies expected to verify the age of young users.
Norway's proposed ban on social media for younger children has cleared an important hurdle, bringing the controversial new rules a step closer to reality.
The Norwegian government wants children under the age of 15 to be prevented from using social media, with platforms ultimately responsible for checking that users are old enough.
On 13 August, the government announced that both the EU Commission and the EFTA Surveillance Authority (ESA) had responded positively to the proposal during an EEA consultation.
The government now aims to present the legislation to the Norwegian parliament, the Storting, before the end of 2026.
However, the proposed rules are not yet law and there is currently no confirmed date for when they would take effect.
How Would Norway's Social Media Ban Work?
Despite the talk of a 15-year age restriction, the government's latest proposal is slightly more complicated than simply allowing access on someone's 15th birthday.
Under the proposed system, access would be permitted from 1 January in the calendar year in which a young person turns 16.
That means everyone in the same school year would gain access at the same time, rather than some pupils being permitted to use social media months before classmates simply because of when their birthday falls.
The government says this change was made following feedback during a public consultation.
Technology companies would be expected to carry out genuine age verification rather than leaving children or their parents responsible for observing the rules.
Exactly how that verification will work remains one of the big questions.
Norway intends to enforce the restriction through the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA). Full enforcement will therefore depend partly on the DSA being incorporated into Norwegian law, although the government says it expects social media companies to comply from the outset.
What Counts As Social Media?
An earlier version of the proposed legislation defined social media broadly as services that allow users to create public personal profiles, connect with networks of other people, and upload and share user-generated content without editorial control.
That doesn't mean every digital service used by children would automatically be banned.
The consultation proposal included exemptions for services primarily used for buying and selling goods, property and job listings, and video games.
Private communication connected with education, leisure activities and organisations was also proposed for exemption, along with digital messaging services. The exact scope could still change before the legislation reaches parliament.
Social Media Use Is Already Widespread Among Norwegian Children
The proposal comes as new figures show just how embedded social media has become in the lives of young Norwegians.
Medietilsynet, the Norwegian Media Authority, released its latest Barn og medier survey in August 2026. It found that 57% of children aged 9–10 use at least one social media service, rising to 79% among 11–12-year-olds.
Those numbers have actually fallen since 2024, when the equivalent figures were 67% and 86% respectively. But social media use becomes almost universal once children reach their teenage years.
Among 13–14-year-olds, 98% use social media. Snapchat is used by 47% of 11–12-year-olds, while TikTok is used by 33%, despite both services having existing age requirements.
The figures underline one of the main practical challenges facing the Norwegian government: having an age requirement and actually enforcing one are two very different things.
Why Does Norway Want a Ban?
The government argues that children need greater protection from the potential harms associated with social media, including harmful content, exploitation, misuse of personal information and exposure to criminal activity.
The latest Medietilsynet research adds some weight to those concerns.
Among Norwegian teenagers aged 13–18, 72% said they had encountered harmful content online. Half had seen content about becoming extremely thin, 36% had encountered frightening or violent material, and 30% had seen content related to the sale of drugs.
At the same time, social media is an important part of young people's social lives and an increasingly important source of information. That is one reason the proposal has prompted such intense debate.
More than 8,000 responses were submitted during the government's public consultation in 2025, making it one of the five most responded-to Norwegian government consultations available digitally.
Even Medietilsynet, which supports raising the age threshold to 15 as a way of reducing risk, has warned against viewing an age restriction as a solution on its own.
The authority has argued that regulation should pay more attention to the specific features of social media that pose risks to children, while also protecting children's rights to information, freedom of expression, privacy and participation in organisations.
An Important European Test
Norway's membership of the European Economic Area means it cannot simply introduce rules affecting digital services without considering European legislation.
That explains the significance of this week's development. ESA responded to the Norwegian proposal on 5 August, followed by the European Commission on 10 August.
According to the Norwegian government, neither believes that the EU's e-commerce rules or Digital Services Act prevent Norway from establishing a national minimum age, provided the legislation is structured appropriately. Both suggested some smaller changes that could help ensure the law complies with EEA rules.
No EU member state currently has a statutory social media age restriction of this kind, although several European countries are considering similar measures. That makes Norway something of a test case.
There are still significant questions over exactly how age verification will work, which platforms will ultimately be covered and when the restrictions could begin.
But following the positive response from European authorities, the Norwegian government believes it can now move forward.
The next major step will be presenting the final proposal to the Norwegian parliament before the end of the year.
