Japan eyes stricter social media age checks to protect youths

TOKYO - Japan must strengthen the responsibilities of social media operators by requiring them to perform stricter age verification and restrict some features, but a blanket age-based ban, such as those seen in other countries, may not be appropriate, a government panel said Tuesday.

A draft report prepared by the panel of the communications ministry outlined measures to protect underage social media users, aiming to reduce youth dependency on such services to mitigate the burden on their mental and physical health.