The center-right government unveiled a “national strategy”, as it was billed, for the protection of minors from Internet addition, especially from social media platforms, with the initiative’s significance demonstrated by the fact that PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis himself served as the main presenter of a framework of actions.
In leading off the event, held at the main Athens Conservatory on Monday, Mitsotakis first said explained that his government does not believe in a complete ban of use of such social media platforms by minors, saying such a prospect would be ineffective. A bevy of other ministers and stakeholder representatives were in attendance, including the leadership of the relevant digital governance ministry.
As such, he said the initiatives announced are adapted to the situation at present vis-a-vis social media use by children and teens, with begins with the premise that “we need to discuss the problem.”
The main actions announced during the high-profile and well-publicized end-of-the-year event include the unveiling of two new applications: parco.gov.gr and Kids Wallet.
The first, which debuted immediately after the event, is a website providing basic directions for parents and guardians of underage children. The app can also be used to determine the time a minor can “surf” the Net, the applications the latter can access, specific days and times as other monitoring tools.
The second application, called “Kids Wallet”, will debut this spring aims to serve as the Greek state’s official age verification of a user.
“With Kids Wallet we’ll have the child’s identity, and we (parents or guardians) will be able to control how much time we want and how many apps we want (for minors’ access). We will be able to remotely control how much time a child is watching the screen, see reports, and be alerted for a violation of the rules that we have to set with our children,” Mitsotakis said, adding:
“I hope that Kids Wallet becomes a pan-European app.”
