Milatović: Montenegro should seriously consider restricting social media for under-16s

Montenegro’s President Jakov Milatović said the country should seriously consider the possibility of restricting access to social media for minors under 16, as the CdM portal reports.

According to CdM, answering journalists’ questions, Milatović emphasized that protecting children in the digital space should be one of society’s main topics, warning that digital violence often remains out of focus when peer violence is discussed.

The president recalled, as CdM writes, that he had also raised this issue during last week’s visit to New York, where he took part in a meeting of world leaders dedicated to children’s rights and protection in the age of artificial intelligence. He said meetings prompted by French President Emmanuel Macron and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez pushed him to put this topic at the center.

“We must protect our children from the digital violence that is everywhere. We often talk about peer violence, but when we talk about that, digital violence remains out of focus. I think our children are very unprotected in this space,” Milatović is quoted as saying by CdM.

He recalled that many developed countries are discussing new models for protecting children online, including restricting social media for under-16s. “One of the measures currently discussed in many developed countries of the Western world is precisely banning the use of social media by children under 16,” the president said.

Milatović emphasized that this topic concerns him both as head of state and as a parent of three children, two of them school-age. He called for a serious public debate involving parents, experts, schools and young people, and hoped that Assembly MPs, the Government and the relevant ministries would examine this initiative in detail, CdM writes.