Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis participated in an event organised by Australia on “ Protecting Children in the Digital Age”, in the context of the High-Level Week of the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The Prime Minister was accompanied by his wife, Mareva Grabowski-Mitsotaki.
In his intervention, Mitsotakis referred to the need for global action to protect children from the negative effects of the uncontrolled use of social media. As he said,
“ We are running the biggest unchecked experiment with our children’s brains ever. We don’t know what the consequences will be, but we are pretty certain that this is not going to turn out well.”
Mitsotakis noted that Greece has taken initiatives in this area, starting with the ban on the use of mobile phones in schools. At the same time, he presented the new digital tool parco.gov.gr, which offers an age-verification mechanism and a parental-control application, giving parents essential support to protect their children online.
He pointed out that the challenge is not limited to social media but also extends to children’s relationship with artificial intelligence tools.
Concluding, Mitsotakis stressed, “ We have a responsibility not just to engage with the tech companies but to make it very clear to them who sets the rules. Tech companies are making enough money. They just don’t need to also make money off the vulnerabilities of our children.”
Mitsotakis’ full speech is as follows:
“ Emma, thank you so much for sharing your story with us. It must take a lot of courage to turn your personal suffering into this very powerful call for action. Prime Minister, thank you for your leadership on this topic. I think we will all be watching very carefully how you implement this important decision, which will have global ramifications.
Last summer, my wife asked me to read a book by Jonathan Haidt who’s with us today. I’m sure you know about it. It’s titled ‘The Anxious Generation’. It was an eye-opening experience for me, because as I was reading about the impact that social media has on our kids and our teenagers, I felt as if I was being shared the stories that the parents themselves are telling us at every opportunity. We are running the biggest unchecked experiment with our children’s brains ever. We don’t know what the consequences will be, but we are pretty certain that this is not going to turn out well.
If we know that the evidence is conclusive, we clearly, as leaders, need to do something about it. First of all, we need to help the parents, because this should not just be a responsibility for parents, because I know how difficult it can be for a single parent to ask his or her kid to get off social media when everybody else is doing the same thing.
So, in Greece, we took this initiative very seriously. First of all, we banned phones in all our schools, and it has been transformative for the educational experience. But we went a step further in trying to solve the main problem, which the tech companies, or main excuse, which the tech companies always use when we talk about age limits regarding social media, which is age verification. They tell us, “ How do we know the true age of the users?”
Well, first of all, they know pretty well what the age of the users is because they can actually see through the content. They know so much about us. They actually have a pretty good understanding what the age is. But what we did is we created a site within our gov.gr, a digital space called ‘parco.gov.gr’, which does essentially two things. First of all, it interlinks into our digital registry. Now we actually have a digital age verification tool for the parents, so that they can log on when they get their kid’s first phone. They also have access to an easy-to-use interface in terms of implementing parental control for social media usage.
We consider this to be only the first step, because, again, it’s up to the parents to set up these accounts. I know it’s not easy for a single parent to actually make these decisions. We in Greece are ready to move one step further and to seriously consider a ban for social media usage, a digital majority age like the one you have implemented. I’ve asked my team to work very closely with your team to see how we can actually make this work.
As you pointed out, Prime Minister, it’s not going to be perfect, but we cannot use the difficulties in implementing these policies as an excuse not to do something about the problem. I’m very happy that the President of the Commission made a special reference in her State of the European Union speech, raising awareness on this issue.
What I can tell you from my experience in Greece is that when we started talking publicly about this problem, we were overwhelmed with the feedback that the parents gave us, asking us, begging us to do something about this problem. As responsible leaders, we do have an obligation, not just a responsibility, to address this challenge, and this is what we intend to do.
Of course, we’re only talking about social media here, but we have not yet tackled the question of how our kids interact with AI chatbots. That is going to be another topic for discussion, which is going to come upon us very quickly. Do we really want our kids to have digital friends that may lead us towards behaviours which are not just unacceptable, but could also be catastrophic? We have a responsibility not just to engage with the tech companies, but to make it very clear to them who sets the rules. Tech companies are making enough money. They just don’t need to also make money off the vulnerabilities of our children. Thank you very much.”