Swiss campaigners submit petition to protect minors on social media

Petition demands more protection of minors on social media from the Federal Council Keystone-SDA

Social media platforms should no longer be accessible to children and young people under the age of 16, a new petition is requesting. The non-profit organisation NextGen4Impact submitted the petition with 60,000 signatures to the Swiss government on Thursday.

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“We need a clear age limit to protect children from addiction, cyber-bullying and commercial manipulation,” says the association in a press release. More and more children of primary-school age are going online every day, it adds: “Cyber-bullying, cyber-grooming and abuse are on the rise, with sometimes fatal consequences for children and young people.” Likes and followers on TikTok, Instagram and other platforms should not be allowed to determine self-esteem, the associated says.

It is therefore high time that politicians take action and adapt the legal situation to everyday digital life, the campaigners say. A ban alone will not eliminate the dangers, but it will create awareness of the risks online, they add; clear signals are needed, similar to the protection of minors from alcohol consumption.

“After all, the government announced in February 2025 that it wanted to examine in a report whether a ban or restriction of social media for under 16-year-olds would make sense,” the association states. Two parliamentary initiatives have already called for a similar analysis.

+ Switzerland to investigate social media ban for children

The petition is supported by Swiss People’s Party parliamentarian Nina Fehr Düsel, entrepreneur Friederike von Waldenfels, along with the Swiss Teachers’ Network, Smartphone-Free Childhood Switzerland (SfKS) and Human Change.

The non-profit organisation NextGen4Impact is an independent association based in Switzerland that campaigns for the future of children and young people and “rethinks education in the age of digitalisation and artificial intelligence”. The petition was launched on Campax.

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Translated from German with DeepL/gw

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