Social Media: After Australia, Egypt is preparing to ban social media, and restrictions may be imposed for young children..

Following Australia, Egypt may also ban social media use for children under 16 years of age. The Egyptian parliament is considering implementing strict regulations regarding children's use of social media. Parliamentarians say this step is being taken to protect children from the negative effects of social media. A draft of a special law will be prepared soon.

Parliament has clarified that the government and relevant expert institutions will be consulted before the law is enacted. The aim is to create a framework that can protect children from threats that influence their thoughts and behavior. Recently, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi advocated for limiting children's social media use. He stated that children should be kept away from social media until they reach an age where they can use it responsibly.

Egypt is learning from other countries
The President cited the examples of countries like Australia and the UK, where restrictions or stricter regulations on social media for children are being implemented. Egypt is also considering taking similar steps. According to a 2024 government report, approximately 50 percent of children under 18 in Egypt use social media. During this time, they may be exposed to dangers such as harmful content, cyberbullying, and online exploitation.

Increasing global restrictions
Australia recently became the first country to ban social media for children under 16.  The UK and France are also taking steps to tighten social media regulations for children. The Australian government's Online Safety Amendment Act came into effect on December 10th of last year. This law includes major platforms such as Reddit, X, Meta's Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. According to the regulations, companies must implement age verification to prevent children under 16 from creating accounts. Following the social media ban, Meta removed a total of 550,000 teen accounts from Instagram, Facebook, and Threads within a week. 

WhatsApp is also introducing a parental control feature.
Keeping children's safety in mind, WhatsApp is working on a new parental control feature. This feature will allow parents to create a secondary WhatsApp account for their children. It will have strict security restrictions that parents can control from their own phones. The child's account will be linked to the parent's primary account via a QR code, ensuring that security remains in the hands of the parents.

According to reports, in this new system, parents will have to set a 6-digit primary PIN. This PIN will be required whenever any major changes need to be made to the child's account. During setup, parents will have to scan the QR code of the child's device from their own phone. After this, the child will not be able to change the settings independently, and the account will remain completely under the parents' supervision.

Disclaimer: This content has been sourced and edited from Amar Ujala. While we have made modifications for clarity and presentation, the original content belongs to its respective authors and website. We do not claim ownership of the content.