Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said on Sunday he was in favor of banning the use of social media by children under 15, as a growing number of European countries consider similar restrictions, Reuters reports.

"I am in favor because the experts I know say that it is terribly harmful to children. We must protect our children," Babis said in a regular video message posted on several of his social media accounts on Sunday, without giving further details.

Later in the day, the government's first deputy prime minister, Karel Havlicek, told a television chat show on private broadcaster CNN Prima News that the cabinet was seriously considering proposing a ban. If it decides to go ahead, Havlicek said legislation would be proposed this year.

Spain and Greece proposed bans on social media use by teenagers last week, as attitudes hardened in Europe against technology some say is designed to be addictive.

A large majority of Greeks support a proposed ban on social media use for children under 15, according to a survey cited by local media on Friday.

About 80% of respondents backed the proposal put forward by the government, the daily Kathimerini reported, citing polling data conducted by the prime minister’s office.

At the same time, 57% of those surveyed said they believe minors would still find ways to bypass restrictions, a concern that has made the government cautious, the report noted.

Government officials cited by the daily said Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is the strongest supporter of the restrictions, but the administration remains wary of legislating a measure that may prove difficult to enforce.

Turkey has started laying the groundwork to restrict social ​media access for minors with a parliamentary report calling for broad measures including age verification and content filtering, joining a growing list of countries seeking tighter controls.

President Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AK Party is expected to submit a draft law on the issue soon and Family and Social Services Minister Mahinur Ozdemir Goktas told reporters after a cabinet meeting last month that the bill would include a social media ban for minors and compel service providers to build content-filtering systems.

The wide-ranging recommendations in the commission report also ‌include the removal of content without notice and the ‌monitoring ⁠of ​kids’ video ‌games or toys with AI functionality for harmful content.

The Turkish parliamentary report further recommends night-time Internet restrictions for devices used by minors under 18, mandatory ‌content filtration on social media until aged 18 and a ‍social media ban until aged 16.

“We ‍need to protect our kids from moral erosion. We aim to protect our ‍children from all types of addictions, including digital ones,” Harun Mertoglu, senior AKP lawmaker and a member of parliament’s human rights enquiry committee, told Reuters.

Social media companies have warned that bans on minors risk being undermined by weak age-verification technology and could push children onto unregulated platforms.

Turkey already regulates social media companies heavily and is quick to impose takedowns and access bans. It currently bans access to 1.2 million web pages and social media posts as of end-2024, according to a report by local censorship watchdog IFOD.

Current regulations require companies to process official or user requests within two days, leaving little room for due process, and compel operators to conform to almost all takedown requests. Social media companies that don’t conform to regulations may face advertisement bans, bandwidth reduction and fines up to 3 percent of global revenues.

Gaming platform Roblox, ‌Discord and story-sharing site Wattpad have been banned in Turkey since 2024. Turkiye had also banned Wikipedia for around three years.