Prime Minister Edi Rama held a press conference today following the meeting of the Council of Ministers, announcing the immediate launch of an extensive consultation with parent communities in all schools across the country, led by the Ministry of Education. The focus of this consultation will be to determine whether to fully block TikTok, Snapchat, or both platforms.

This decision follows the tragic incident two days ago, where a 14-year-old was killed by his peer.

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Prime Minister Edi Rama: For the past three days, people of all ages have been shocked by the horrific murder of a 14-year-old student, stabbed by another adolescent. The entire tragedy highlights the constant threat faced by families raising children in today’s world, where social media, particularly TikTok and Snapchat, draws our children into their addictive cycles from a very young age.

The authority of parents and teachers, as well as all our efforts within families and schools to educate children, are increasingly challenged by the parallel world of these platforms, where there is no filter, no protection, and no positive reinforcement to support these efforts. In these spaces, not only is education undermined, but the mental health of younger children and adolescents is seriously at risk.

These are simple truths that are not difficult to agree on, both as parents and as citizens witnessing the realities of today’s world. Ensuring the safety of our children is our top priority. However, finding the right answers in these challenging circumstances is not so straightforward. Many countries are trying to implement protective filters, but so far, there has been no meaningful success.

At the same time, every parent witnesses the growing pressure to pull children away from the screens of their smartphones, pressure that is becoming increasingly overwhelming, even in their own homes.

As a government, we have been actively researching this issue, carefully observing what other countries are doing, and exploring possible solutions to reduce this escalating and alarming pressure.

In fact, similar initiatives have been undertaken in other countries as well, such as in Australia, where there is currently an attempt to ban access to social media for all children under the age of 16, to France, where the approval of parents is being discussed as a requirement for opening an online account for children under 15, and to Spain, where it was initially decided that children under 14 should not be allowed to open online accounts, with the age limit recently raised to 16.

However, beyond these efforts and debates surrounding these initiatives, the ongoing problem remains the lack of a system to enforce them, due to the technical challenges associated with various factors that are not the focus of today’s discussion. Now, our dilemma as a government is whether we should attempt to implement filters when, in fact, all experiences so far in Europe and beyond show that their effectiveness is still very low, while the stimuli of violence and cases of bullying in the online world of children and adolescents continue to rise. Or should we take a more drastic measure to fully block TikTok, and perhaps even Snapchat, within the territory of the Republic of Albania?

We have decided to initiate a broad discussion on this issue, involving all parent communities and schools, under the leadership of the Ministry of Education. This will allow us to make a well-informed and democratic decision on such an important matter—one that is complex both in its nature and in finding a solution.

On the other hand, as I announced at the start of the school year, when, together with the Minister of Education and the Minister of Internal Affairs, we addressed the issue of school safety, we have been working intensively on a project to establish a new digital monitoring system for schools and classrooms. This will be part of the broader national system for monitoring highways and city streets with smart cameras.

For over a year, we’ve been collaborating on this project with the government of the United Arab Emirates, where this system has been implemented with outstanding success, significantly improving security and yielding remarkable results in reducing bullying in schools.

We have agreed on the funding with the support of the Abu Dhabi Fund, and we will soon publicly present the project and begin its implementation. Our goal is to complete it step by step within 20 months, while gradually equipping schools with this system.

For several years, we have banned mobile phones in schools, but it is now time to review the sanctions related to violations of this general rule. At the same time, the placement of security staff and psychologists in our schools has yielded a number of positive results, which will certainly be significantly enhanced by the introduction of technological surveillance in every school perimeter and even in every classroom, where, practically, parents will be able to observe everything that happens with their children and the teaching process whenever they want to check on their child’s progress or any related issues.

In conclusion, I want to emphasize that the tragedy of the 14-year-old student, his family, and the Fan Noli school community is far too significant to be reduced to the narrow agenda of a fake political and media elite that distorts national and public interests, turning every issue, event, and even tragedy into a tool for their own power and business interests, manipulating the emotions of the people.

This tragedy should unite us as parents and citizens to recognize that each of us must take greater responsibility for protecting our children. This starts within the walls of our homes, continues within the walls of schools, and extends to every space where our children live and grow—including the television screens. The overwhelming majority of those who pretend to mourn for Albania and its people are, in fact, irresponsible promoters of violent language and, at times, direct instigators of violence. This includes the Albanian Parliament, which has become an arena of violence and the incitement of hateful rhetoric.

I assure all parents that I am fully aware and deeply committed, together with my government colleagues, to doing everything we can on our part to alleviate the immense pressure that social media places on our children and to improve the overall quality of their safety.

I look forward to the outcomes of the broad consultation with parent communities regarding the approach we should take together on TikTok, Snapchat, or both. According to all our research, these two platforms are the primary sources of confusion, the incitement of violence, and acts of bullying, which can even escalate into tragedies like the recent one. As a society and as a state, we must come together to find the most effective response to this issue.

Thank you!