A few days ago, news broke that the Spanish government is planning to ban access to social media for minors under the age of 16. A major challenge that has sparked widespread debate, but which hides a reality we cannot afford to ignore: the mental health of children and young people.
At Balance Phone, we have been working for years on devices designed to protect children and adolescents. That is why, in today’s article, we want to take a deeper look at this issue and explain why this kind of care is so important.
Measures against digital platforms
Following his participation in the World Governments Summit in Dubai, the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, announced the launch of measures aimed at creating a safe digital environment in response to the “abuses of major digital platforms”.
Disinformation, hate speech and the lack of protection of personal data are some of the reasons behind this decision. Among other measures, the proposal includes requiring social media platforms to verify the age of their users — something already implemented in countries such as France or Austria — and banning their use for under-16s.
But why is this being done? Is it really that important? What effect do these apps have on children and adolescents? Let’s take a closer look.
The effect of dopamine on children
You have probably seen the familiar scene: a family having dinner at a restaurant hands their child a tablet or mobile phone, and the child becomes completely absorbed, disconnecting from their surroundings and focusing solely on the screen.
This is one of the seeds of what will later happen as we develop cognitively.
A child’s attention becomes overstimulated by this content, which makes them feel much better than any other external stimulus. This is due to dopamine, a substance released by the brain in moments of pleasure. By nature, dopamine is released sparingly, at the right time. However, technology has led us to become addicted to it.
As we grow older, cartoons or tablet games are replaced by social media. These apps, as we will see next, are designed to generate dependency.
Every like, repost or piece of content shared by people admired by the user activates that dopamine trigger, making us return again and again… even when there is no notification at all, simply driven by the desire to check.
Why is it so hard to put the phone down?
We recommend watching the Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma, a powerful lesson that helps explain how major social networks work from the perspective of former employees who left their jobs for ethical reasons.
In its 90-minute runtime, they explain that beyond content creators, the system itself is designed to generate addiction. If adults already struggle to limit their use, young people are the perfect victims of tools that were never designed for them.
According to data published by Europa Press in 2026, Spanish minors spend close to an hour and a half per day on social media, placing them among the countries where young people spend the most time on these platforms. We have written several guides to help parents learn how to reduce screen time in adolescents.
Apps such as Instagram or TikTok are trained to constantly capture users’ attention. Simply lingering a few seconds longer on a particular video allows the algorithm to detect interest and flood us with more of the same content.
And no, the effect on our minds is not the same when watching a cooking recipe video as it is with hypersexualised content, directly and indirectly affecting self-esteem — especially among younger girls.
If we frequently visit a specific account — whether it belongs to a celebrity, a close friend or an ex-partner — we will be immediately aware whenever they upload new content.
Naturally, adolescents find in social media a powerful tool of judgement that can positively or negatively impact their self-esteem. Comparisons, or the number of likes received on each post, can trigger both extreme euphoria and deep depression.
And finally, anonymity. Minors can find in social media a dark space where they can act without responsibility — including bullying, access to harmful information, or contact with adults without their parents’ knowledge.
Faced with this situation, the solution is not to ban for the sake of banning, but to offer tools that enable a healthy transition into digital life.
How do we approach this at Balance Phone?
At Balance Phone, we identified this issue a long time ago, which is why we focused on designing smartphone devices specifically for children and adolescents — devices that do not keep young people away from technology, but instead guide them towards responsible use.
Balance Phone devices allow parents, straight out of the box and without the need for external apps, to block content they consider harmful, as well as restricting dangerous applications, gaming, pornography and any websites that are not suitable for minors.
Educating young people on how to use new technologies is essential, but prohibition alone does not solve addiction. Moreover, implementing verification systems opens up a serious debate around the management of minors’ identity data.
Protection should not be based on surveillance or verification, but on teaching, supporting and consciously setting limits. Many parents know that not buying a phone for their children often means excluding them from their social world — and we have listened. That is why Balance Phone devices remove the negative aspects while preserving the positive ones.
For example, children can message their friends via WhatsApp, listen to music on Spotify, take photos and even book an Uber to get home — but without access to adult content.
And no, this is not an app that can be bypassed or uninstalled. We are talking about a proprietary operating system, Balance OS, fully integrated into the phone itself.
In this way, minors can begin their digital journey without falling into all the risks that surround it, until they develop the maturity needed to self-manage their usage. We strongly believe this is the best way to educate children during such an important stage of their lives, regardless of any laws that may come into force in the near future.
