By Lefteris Papadimas and Renee Maltezou
ATHENS, April 2 (Reuters) - Greek mother Georgia Efstathiou has tried everything to loosen the grip that social media has on her 14-year-old son: heart-to-heart talks; internet-free time; confiscating his phone. Arguments flare as she fights the allure of his screen and its videos and messages.
Now, Efstathiou may be getting the help she desperately wants. In the coming days, the Greek government is expected to announce a social media ban for children under 15, joining the growing ranks of nations seeking to shield young children from addiction and online abuse.
"Ban them, shut them down. We've reached our limits... We parents need help," said Efstathiou, 43, holding her son's mobile phone in her living room in Athens.
Efstathiou isn't alone. An opinion poll by ALCO published in February showed about 80% of those surveyed approved of a ban. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' government has already outlawed mobile phones in schools and set up parental control platforms to limit teenagers’ screen time.
The government has declined comment on the ban or when and how it will be implemented.
Reuters reported on the plan in February and sources said a formal announcement is pending. Last month, Mitsotakis told a Greek-Australian newspaper that Greece will move "in a similar direction to that of Australia", where social media companies were ordered in December to keep out users under 16 or face fines.
WORRIES OF ADDICTION AND BULLYING ABOUND
As in countries across the world, Greece faces a reckoning with social media sites such as Meta's Instagram, TikTok and online gaming platforms.
At the EU-funded Greek Safer Internet Centre in Athens, calls to a helpline which offers support to child victims of cyberbullying more than doubled between 2024 and 2025, said George Kormas, who runs the helpline. Other complaints include blackmail of minors, misinformation and hate speech.
According to the helpline’s data, 75% of children using social media in Greece are of primary‑school age.
"This undoubtedly worries us, because they cannot handle social media or protect themselves,” he said.
The head of the National Organization for the Prevention and Treatment of Addictions, Athanasios Theocharis, said roughly 48% of teenagers have felt the negative impact of social media.
"Clearly (the ban) has the potential to provide a significant degree of protection," he said.
KIDS CAN'T IMAGINE A LIFE WITHOUT SOCIAL MEDIA
Meanwhile, parents who spoke to Reuters fear they have lost control of what their children do online or expressed concern that kids will find a way around the ban. Some prefer no government intervention at all.
"I'd prefer a different approach, limiting mobile phone use within the family," said Dimitris, 44. "But where that's not possible, perhaps a ban would work as the extreme remedy."
His 14-year-old daughter Catherine says most teenagers her age have never known a world without social media.
"It is the way we learned since we were born," she told Reuters, before playing basketball with her father near the Acropolis.
"I can control it — but then again I usually get carried away."
(Additional reporting by Deborah Kyvrikosaios and Louisa Gouliamaki in Athens; Editing by Edward McAllister and Lincoln Feast.)
