Norway’s government has revised its planned social media age-limit law to cover platforms judged harmful to children, while removing broad exemptions for games and messaging services. It expects TikTok, Roblox and Snapchat, as currently designed, to fall within the proposal.
The revised approach would apply a risk-of-harm test to a service’s design, features or content. The government defines the relevant risks as threats to children’s emotional, cognitive or health development, or their safety. It says that test allows it to target harmful games and messaging functions without automatically covering harmless games or applications used for communication with schools.
Children and Families Minister Lene Vågslid said removing the exemptions could bring additional harmful services within the law. The government lists exposure to harmful content, addictive features, unlawful marketing and unwanted contact from strangers among the risks it wants platforms to address. Assessments of harm would be based on evidence and updated as technology changes.
The proposed age limit runs until January 1 of the year a child turns 16, rather than the child’s sixteenth birthday. That birth-year approach was part of Norway’s earlier plan to place age-verification duties on platforms. The government still aims to submit a bill to the Storting, Norway’s parliament, before the end of 2026, following consultations in Norway and the European Economic Area.
“Companies must ensure age verification that actually works, and we expect them to comply with the law from day one,” said Torgeir Micaelsen, minister of digitalization and public governance. He said the government gives high priority to passing Norway’s law implementing the EU Digital Services Act, which would give it tools to enforce the age limit against large social media companies. The national age-limit law is designed to activate the sanctions and enforcement obligations in that EU regulation.
Providers would choose their own age-verification solutions to meet their obligations under the Digital Services Act. The government says those solutions must be privacy-friendly and comply with the General Data Protection Regulation. The bill has not yet been submitted to the Storting.
Vågslid said the change does not narrow the law. “On the contrary, it can help us reach more of the platforms that are harmful,” she said, adding that it could cover games that can be considered social media and have harmful features.
Sources: Norwegian Government
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
