In a bid to encourage Europe to embrace Greece's initiative to counteract internet addiction and create a safer online environment for minors, Digital Governance Minister Dimitris Papastergiou is heading to Brussels. There, at a high-level event at Greece's Permanent Representation to the European Union at 13:00 on Wednesday, he will have the opportunity to present Greece's National Strategy for this issue, which it sees as one that could also be tackled through broader European cooperation.
"The protection of minors from addiction to the internet and taking action on this issue on a European level are key priorities. In this framework, we designed a National Strategy that aims precisely at such a balanced use of digital platforms by children. During the week that I will be in Brussels, we will, among others, communicate our strategy to representatives of the member-states, the European Commission, the private sector and civil society. Our main digital tool in this direction is the Kids Wallet app, which we are activating within the spring and which will be useful as a means of parental control but also for verifying the age of users," Papastergiou said in statements to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA-MPA).
Papastergiou will present the Kids Wallet app that is due to be released in April, seeking allies in the European environment to push for age verification on platforms. This is also the main aim of Kids Wallet, which forms part of the national action plan presented at the end of 2024 by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and which he presented at the AI Action Summit in Paris, which Papastergiou attended.
The minister also had a series of meetings with his counterparts in Paris, at the World Governments Summit in Dubai and the MWC 2025 in Barcelona, in which he called for further action and strategic alliances, while presenting the road map for dealing with internet addiction in minors through innovative technological solutions and regulatory proposals.
Greece's proposals for strengthening the European regulatory framework for protecting minors from internet addiction and to shape upcoming European legislative initiatives will also be presented in Brussels.
"Since it is necessary for digital content platforms to activate functions for certification of age throughout Europe, it is crucial to seek broader cooperation in order to deal with such a complex problem. Only by working together can we achieve these targets and help parents and children manage the time, duration and content they watch. The prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has placed this issue high on the government's agenda. I am optimistic, since wherever I have found myself so far, whether at the AI Action Summit in Paris, the World Governments Summit in Dubai, the MWC exhibition in Barcelona, there has been keen interest in the strategy and the digital tools parco.gov.gr and Kids Wallet," Papastergious told ANA-MPA.
The action plan points to the dangers of excessive internet use by children, including the psychological and mental health impacts. It talks of a national strategy aiming to protect children by creating a safer digital environment, while dealing with screen addiction. It also acknowledges the benefits of the internet in education, socialisation and creativity, striving for a balanced approach that protects from the dangers while enjoying the benefits.