Norway plans to raise minimum age for social media access to 15

Children in Norway may need to wait a few more years to legally access social media, as the Scandinavian country plans to raise the minimum age from 13 to 15 in a bid to protect the young from harmful content online.

- Rhea Yasmine

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said the move "sends quite a strong signal".

"Children must be protected from harmful content on social media. These are big tech giants pitted against small children's brains," he told newspaper VG on Oct 23, reported The Guardian.

"We know that this is an uphill battle because there are strong forces here, but it is also where politics is needed."

Despite the existing age limit of 13 for children, research by the Norwegian media authority found that more than half of all nine-year-olds, 58 per cent of 10-year-olds, and 72 per cent of 11-year-olds were already using social media.