Federal Minister of Education and Family Affairs Karin Prien (CDU) has called for effective age regulation of access to social media.

"At the moment, children and young people are exposed to violent, pornographic and extremist content on the Internet without any protection," Prien told "Welt am Sonntag." Anyone who seriously claims that this can be achieved without regulation is misleading people, Prien continued. "We don't let our children go to brothels or liquor stores either. We urgently need effective age verification as an effective regulation." Prien thus clarified a demand she had made at the Republica internet conference.

Prien sharply rejected the accusation by FDP Vice Chairman Wolfgang Kubicki that she wanted to restrict freedom of expression. "This is a good example of the knee-jerk reaction with which some politicians, but also the media, react to certain buzzwords these days," Prien said. She was concerned with protecting children and young people – "not with restricting freedom of expression on social media."