Social media will be banned for children under 13 across the European Union according to the newly proposed “EU Kids Act”, announced by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen today (16 September) in Brussels. The sweeping digital health initiative mandates strict parental oversight for young teenagers aged 13 to under 15 across all 27 member states.
“It is not about our minors accessing social media. It is about when and how we allow social media to access minors,” said von der Leyen during her State of the Union address in the European Parliament.
A leaked Commission draft of the “EU Kids Act”, published online by the media group Euractiv, highlights how the proposed legislation would target escalating youth mental health crises linked to addictive platform architecture and excessive daily screen time. Recent Eurobarometer data indicates that European teenagers currently average 4.5 hours online on school days, triggering urgent public health concerns regarding sleep disruption, anxiety, and exposure to harmful algorithmic content.
If successful, the initiative would set a precedent as the first binding supranational agreement establishing unified digital health and age-restriction standards for minors.
Key measures in the EU Kids Act
The draft EU strategy specifically targets “Social Media+” platforms, video-sharing services, and conversational artificial intelligence companions that pose psychological risks to developing brains. Under the proposed framework, adolescents aged 13 to under 15 may only access guardian-supervised “mini-accounts” restricted to an explicit one-hour daily screen-time cap, default private settings, and limited contact lists.
Platform operators will be legally required to enforce safety-by-design standards by default including: eliminating infinite scrolling, push-notification triggers, and engagement-driven reward loops that exploit adolescent dopamine systems. The legislation also requires technology companies to scientifically demonstrate that their services are safe before deploying them to young users.
The European Commission proposal builds directly on recommendations from an EU expert panel, which urged Brussels to establish an EU-wide minimum digital age and shift the burden of proof onto technology companies.
The proposal comes after a major legal setback in France, where the Constitutional Council struck down a national social media ban for under-15s over constitutional rights concerns. It also follows a historic multi-billion dollar settlement in the United States between Meta and state attorneys general over claims that its platform features deliberately harm minors, and lead to their addiction.
Privacy safeguards and legal compromises
To address privacy concerns, the draft requires platforms to use an open-source EU age verification tool built on zero-knowledge cryptographic proofs, allowing users to verify their age threshold without disclosing their identity or exact birthdate. However, legal experts like Christiane Wendehorst from the University of Vienna warn that critical circumvention loopholes remain, as teenagers could easily bypass one-off checks by registering under the credentials of older siblings or friends.
While the EU Special Panel recommended a single access restriction below age 13 alongside more evolving autonomous use for older adolescents, the leaked Commission draft adopts a significantly stricter approach that extends mandatory parental oversight up to age 15. By opting for supervised “mini-accounts” rather than an outright ban, Brussels seeks to avoid the legal flaws of France’s national law, which was struck down for disproportionately restricting minors’ freedom of expression.
Furthermore, the Commission draft formalises the EU expert panel’s recommendation to shift the burden of proof regarding compliance onto platform operators, via administrative mechanisms. Platforms classified as “Very Large Online Platforms” under EU law must submit plans for public authority approval 30 days before rolling out any new service or feature, funded by an EU-wide supervisory fee on the operators.
Next steps in European lawmaking
By pairing strict age-gated access with systemic design overhauls, European regulators also intend to set a standard for a binding international framework for child online health and safety, harmonizing rules across a now fragmented EU landscape.
“Europe has the power to act; it is we who decide our rules, not Big Tech,” said EU Commission President von der Leyen.
While the European Commission will formally table its proposal on Thursday, the ultimate fate of the “EU Kids Act” rests with the European Parliament and the EU Council, where parliamentarians and government ministers will have to negotiate over the final, binding rules. Within this legislative process, member states exercise decisive power through the Council, where qualified majority approval is required before any text can become binding law.
See related story:
Warning labels, Time restrictions? Experts Mull How to Curb Social Media Harms
Image Credits: Ron Lach via Pexels, EU/HPW.
Combat the infodemic in health information and support health policy reporting from the global South. Our growing network of journalists in Africa, Asia, Geneva and New York connect the dots between regional realities and the big global debates, with evidence-based, open access news and analysis. To make a personal or organisational contribution click here.
