Raise ages for drinking, TikTok, German drug official says

The age limit for alcohol consumption should be raised and that for the use of the video platform TikTok lowered to protect young people from damage to their mental and physical health, the German commissioner for drug-related affairs said in comments published on Wednesday.

Burkhard Blienert, from Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats, said children under 12 should be banned from TikTok. Some countries have banned TikTok outright, though not for reasons related to child health. Blienert also said the age for consuming any form of alcohol should be lifted to 18.

The user conditions for TikTok currently state that people aged 13 or older can use the platform. In Germany, drinking of wine, beer and champagne in public is allowed from the age of 16, and from 14 when a parent is present.

What did Blienert say? 

"TikTok must be banned for children up to 12," Blienert told the daily Rheinische Post. "Only after that can young people assess better how to use social media sensibly and what is good for them or not."

Blienert said that even young teenagers should not use TikTok without restrictions.

"TikTok must be age-graded with technical restrictions up to the age of 18 to rule out dangerous elements. We have to look very closely when drugs or violence are glorified," he said, adding that social media could not be treated like a lawless "Wild West."

He also addressed the issue of alcohol consumption among young people.

"The consumption of alcohol should be allowed only from 18 onward, when people reach adulthood," he said, pointing out that this rule already applied to tobacco products.

Alcohol is a "poison for the cells that takes effect from the first drop," he said, saying there was no level of consumption — for adults or children — deemed safe by health experts.

"Alcohol, of course, has a particularly strong effect on young people who are still developing physically. It has been proven to damage the brain," Blienert said.

Blienert, however, defended the coalition government's legalization of cannabis, saying the measure had served to reduce the dangers posed by the black market for drugs.

tj/sms (dpa, epd)

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