EU Moves to Ban Social Media for Under-13s, and Genoa Weighs the Port's Young

The European Union will ban social media for children under 13 and allow only limited, supervised access until the age of 15 under plans unveiled on Wednesday by the Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, according to The Local Italy. The proposal, presented under the slogan that Europe has the power to act, would apply across the 27 member states and, if adopted, would reach Italian households along with everyone else's.

For a Ligurian port city the measure is less a debate about screen time than about the terms on which young people stay. Genoa's economy still runs on the docks, shipping and logistics, but its demographic problem is the same one the foreign press keeps describing for Italy as a whole: a low birth rate and a steady emigration of the young. Any rule that changes how a generation grows up online arrives in a region already counting who leaves and who remains.

The Commission's plan is a proposal, not law, and the wire does not yet describe the parliamentary path or the exemptions it might carry. What is clear from the coverage is the direction: Brussels is prepared to legislate on minors' access to platforms, and Italy, as a founding member and a large market, would implement whatever emerges.