Netherlands Today: 17 September 2026

Brussels wants to limit how long young teenagers spend on social media, and in The Hague the prime minister is keeping his options open. Closer to home, there is a discrimination ruling on a sauna visit, a budget setback in Amsterdam and a bookseller near Rotterdam with some unexpected customers.

EU plans a daily social media cap for younger teens

The European Commission has proposed limiting children aged 13 to 15 to one hour of social media screen time per day. The cap is part of wider plans to restrict young teenagers’ access to these platforms. If you are raising children in the Netherlands, rules agreed in Brussels could change how your family uses these apps.

Source: NL Times

Jetten keeps his coalition’s options open

Prime Minister Rob Jetten has declined to say whether his minority coalition will look to the left or the right for support. Opposition parties warn that this could lead to political drama. A minority government needs votes from outside its own ranks, so the answer will shape which policies can get through parliament.

Source: DutchNews

Sauna was wrong to turn away woman in burkini

The Netherlands Institute for Human Rights has ruled that the Zwaluwhoeve sauna and wellness business in Hierden, near Harderwijk, discriminated on the grounds of religion and gender when it sent away a Muslim woman wearing a burkini. She visited in June last year on a swimwear day, when house rules allowed swimsuits and swim shorts but not clothing that covers the whole body. The ruling is a useful reminder that house rules at leisure venues cannot discriminate.

Source: NOS

Amsterdam drops civil service savings target

In Amsterdam, alderman Biemond has had to drop a target for cutting spending on the city’s civil service, and has done so in his very first budget. His comment, as reported, was that the process has to be done properly.

Source: Het Parool

Old books from a local shop end up training AI

Nancy Schot, a second-hand bookseller in Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht in the Rotterdam region, used to sell mainly to book lovers from her area. Today she ships thousands of orders to the United States, where her books are used to train AI models. “It is good business, but the books are lost this way,” she says.

Source: Rijnmond

Suspect confesses to assaults around Delft park

A 19-year-old man arrested on Monday after an indecent assault in Den Hoorn is also suspected of assaults and indecent assaults around the Delftse Hout park in Delft earlier this summer. On Thursday the Public Prosecution Service brought him before an examining judge for five incidents in total, and he has confessed to them. According to the headline, his DNA also matches.

Source: Omroep West

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