Bulgaria’s GERB party has submitted a bill that would bar children under 16 from social networks and verify users’ ages through a state-issued digital identity app, joining a growing wave of governments turning to age assurance to police access to online platforms.
The proposal, announced by GERB member of parliament Kostadin Angelov, would create a free digital identity application, described as a digital wallet, that users would rely on to prove their age when registering on social media. The application would be developed by the Ministry of e-Government and, according to Angelov, would comply with European digital identity regulations, aligning it with the bloc’s work on wallet-based identity and age verification. Age assurance covers a range of methods, from checking an identity document to estimating age from a face, aimed at keeping minors off services meant for adults. Angelov said the check would apply regardless of a user’s IP address or use of a virtual private network, and that it would stop minors from falsely declaring themselves to be adults.
Under the bill, under-16s would be barred from social networks entirely, with an exception for educational platforms approved by the education minister. Teenagers between 16 and 18 would face restrictions rather than a ban: platforms would have to switch off automatic recommendation systems and endless-scroll features for that age group, and block their access between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. Messaging apps such as Viber, WhatsApp, and Signal would be exempt when used purely for communication, and existing accounts would have to pass an age check or lose access.
The measure echoes moves elsewhere in Europe. Norway has advanced its own under-16 social media ban with an age-verification duty on platforms, and the European Union has been testing shared tooling, piloting a privacy-preserving digital age-verification system across several member states that a national app like Bulgaria’s could build on.
Angelov framed heavy social media use as a form of digital addiction and called on all parties in parliament to back the initiative, proposing a cross-party group to seek agreement. The bill would still need to pass Bulgaria’s National Assembly to take effect.
Sources: Novinite
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By Cass Kennedy
