A wider target than first planned

On Monday, 19 October 2026, the Norwegian government said its planned law restricting children's access to online services would reach well beyond social media. The bill, which the government intends to put before parliament by the end of the year, is aimed at children under 16. Earlier plans had given online games and messaging services broad exemptions. The government now wants to assess each platform by the risk it poses to children, which brings games and chat tools within scope.

The government said TikTok, Snapchat and Roblox would fall under the law in their current form. Polish reports said YouTube could also face strict age limits, while the authorities have not yet said which other applications would be included.

The risks the law is meant to address

The government said the law targets the full range of risks children face on social media, from exposure to harmful content and addictive features to illegal marketing and unwanted contact with strangers. Under the plan, technology companies would be responsible for verifying users' ages and would be pushed to remove harmful content and features that can cause dependency. The ministry defined harmful platforms as social networks whose design, features or content pose a risk to the emotional, cognitive or physical development of children, or to their safety. Vaagslid said some services that present themselves as games use algorithm-driven mechanisms and illegal advertising aimed at children, and that these should also be covered. The providers would have to introduce age checks to ensure that no under-16s use their platforms.

Background and timeline

The government first said in April that it intended to present a bill to parliament by the end of the year, banning access for under-16s to social media. At that stage, authorities had not said which platforms would be targeted. Australia was the first country in the world to impose such restrictions, in December 2025, and its rules cover Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube. Several European countries are also trying to limit children's use of online services, and Germany plans a transitional rule that would generally exclude children under 13 from social networks.

Open questions

Several points remain unsettled. The articles do not say which applications beyond the three named platforms could be added, and the government has not confirmed YouTube's status. Games and messaging services were previously outside the plans, so their inclusion is a shift that has yet to be written into a bill. Work on the proposed restrictions is scheduled to continue until the end of 2026.