The European Union is set to propose EU KIDS ACT curbing access to social media platforms, video-sharing platforms, online games and AI chatbots under the age of 15.
The proposal will be previewed by EU chief Ursula von der Leyen during her address to the European Parliament, with the official legal text presented on Thursday alongside EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen.
Built in response to mounting pressure from member states like France and Greece and following Australia’s lead in banning under-16s from social media, the EU aims to curb online harms, mental health risks, and addictive traits.
Unlike Australia’s blanket ban, the EU proposal implements a tiered, gradual system regarding autonomous accounts on social media, video-sharing, AI, and gaming platforms.
There will be a complete ban for under 3 years old from social media and other risky services. Kids age 3 to 13 will be restricted strictly to fully parent-controlled accounts on designated “child-friendly” services with high safety standards.
Minors with age 13-14 must have parents set up “introductory” accounts featuring strict screen time limits and limited features, remaining under parent control.
For autonomous accounts, an EU wide minimum age of 15 is required for minors to open an independent account without parental sign-off. The EU is concurrently developing an age-check app to enforce these limits smoothly across member states.
Speaking about digital platforms, they will be legally required to re-engineer their systems to protect young users by default. There would be a ban on addictive features like infinite scrolling, artificial notification loops, and specific reward features tailored to hook children.
Algorithms that feed personalized content will be heavily regulated to prevent minors from being pushed harmful material.
Children’s accounts must automatically maintain private settings, disabling “risky settings” and blocking unknown users from contacting minors.
The new law builds on the existing Digital Services Act (DSA), though the EU notes current rules do not go far enough because they lack explicit bans on specific problematic design elements.
Violations under the broader framework can risk massive penalties, such as fines up to 6% of a company’s global annual turnover.
