Estonia has become, along with Belgium, one of the few countries in the European Union that have refused to join the so-called Jutland Declaration, a political commitment signed in October 2025 by the majority of member states to restrict minors’ access to social networks. While countries such as France, Spain and Austria have made progress in age limitations – and even Australia has already banned access to minors under 16 years of age – the Estonian government questions the real effectiveness of this approach.
From the Executive, the position is argued alleging that prohibitions based on age are difficult to apply and easily circumvented. They argue that minors will find ways to circumvent them, as has already happened in markets where they have been implemented, and that the regulatory focus should be on the technological platforms, not on the users. In this sense, Estonia defends applying more rigorously the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which already includes relevant sanctions for companies that manage minors’ data without adequate guarantees.
Transferring responsibility to minors implies “focusing the problem incorrectly”
Regulating platforms versus limiting users
The Minister of Education, Kristina Kallas, has been one of the most critical voices of the European consensus. Considers that transferring responsibility to minors implies “focusing the problem wrong” and demands greater force from the European Union against big technology companies. Along the same lines, the Minister of Justice and Digital Affairs, Liisa-Ly Pakosta, has defended that young people should be part of the information society, instead of being excluded from it through restrictions.
The Estonian approach is also supported by the recent experience of other countries. In Australia, where one of the first bans on minors under 16 years of age was implemented, initial data shows that a large proportion of users continued to access the platforms through alternative methods such as VPN or shared accounts. This precedent reinforces Estonia’s thesis: without effective regulation on platforms, restrictions can become symbolic measures rather than real solutions.
The discussion will now move to the development of the future Digital Fairness Act from the European Commission, which will address issues such as algorithms, addictive patterns or platform design. The European Parliament has already shown its support for establishing a minimum digital age of 16 years, but the position of countries like Estonia opens a fundamental debate about where responsibility should lie: regulating access for minors or demanding greater responsibility from the platforms that design digital environments. With the growing weight of algorithms in the way young people consume content, Europe will have to decide whether to limit use or redefine the rules of the system.
