German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he supports raising the minimum age for platforms like Instagram and TikTok, warning that teenagers spending five hours or more a day on screens can face social and personality problems.

Axar.az informs, citing DW, Merz made the comments on the politics podcast "Machtwechsel" as a state branch of his conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) from Schleswig-Holstein submitted a proposal to set the minimum age at 16, paired with mandatory age verification.

"If children today, at the age of 14, have up to five hours or more of screen time a day, if all socialization takes place only through this medium, then we shouldn't be surprised about personality deficits and problems in the social behavior of young people."