Teenagers at St Mac Dara’s Community College in Templeogue, south Dublin, have been sharing their thoughts on proposed EU rules that could dramatically change how young people use social media in Ireland.
The European Union has put forward plans to ban children under 13 from using social media platforms entirely. For teenagers older than that, the proposals include strict safe design rules aimed at protecting them from harmful content and addictive features built into apps.
Students at the Templeogue school had plenty to say about it, and their views were far from one-sided.
Some students backed the idea, saying younger kids probably are not ready for the pressures that come with being online. Social media can be a tough place, and many teens acknowledged that the platforms are deliberately designed to keep users scrolling for as long as possible. Features like endless feeds, likes, and notifications are engineered to be addictive, and younger children are especially vulnerable to that kind of manipulation.
But plenty of students pushed back too. Many pointed out that age bans are easy to get around. If a 12-year-old wants to make an account, they just put in a fake birthday. Without serious identity verification, a blanket ban might end up being more symbolic than effective. That raises a bigger question about whether the EU has a realistic plan to actually enforce these rules across platforms that operate globally.
There was also a sense among some students that social media is not all bad. It is how a lot of young people stay connected with friends, follow their interests, and even learn things. Cutting off younger teenagers completely could leave them isolated or just push them toward less regulated corners of the internet.
The safe design rules for older teens got a more mixed reception. The idea behind them is to force platforms to make their apps less manipulative for users between 13 and 17. That could mean limiting autoplay videos, reducing the power of recommendation algorithms, or restricting certain types of targeted content. Some students thought that sounded reasonable. Others were skeptical that tech companies would actually follow through in any meaningful way without heavy penalties.
Ireland has a particular stake in all of this. Dublin is home to the European headquarters of several major tech giants, including Meta, TikTok, and Google. Under EU data protection rules, Ireland’s Data Protection Commission acts as the lead regulator for many of these companies across the entire bloc. That has already put Ireland in the spotlight when it comes to how seriously big tech is held to account.
The debate around children and social media has been growing louder across Europe and beyond. Several countries have already moved ahead with their own restrictions. Australia recently passed a law banning social media for under 16s, one of the toughest stances taken anywhere in the world. In the UK, the Online Safety Act is pushing platforms to do more to protect younger users.
Back in Ireland, parents and schools have been grappling with the issue for years. Teachers have raised concerns about the impact of social media on teenage mental health, sleep, and concentration. Cyberbullying remains a serious problem, and many school staff say they spend significant time dealing with conflicts that started online and spilled into the classroom.
The students in Templeogue are growing up right in the middle of all this. They are the generation that has never known a world without smartphones and social media, which arguably makes their perspective more valuable than most when it comes to figuring out what actually works.
What came through clearly from their discussion was that young people are not naive about the downsides of social media. They get it. But they also want a say in how these rules are shaped, rather than having decisions handed down to them by politicians and regulators who may not fully understand how they actually use these platforms day to day.
The EU proposals are still working their way through the legislative process, so nothing is set in stone yet. But the conversation is well and truly underway, and Irish teenagers are making sure their voices are part of it.