THE’European Union wants to regulate access to social media, video sharing platforms, online video games and even AI chatbots for children and teenagers. And he wants to do it withEU Kids Acta measure made official today 17 September by the European Commission with which Brussels aims to make digital services for minors safer and to introduce a age-based access system to these technologies of users.
The proposal includes a ban on access to social media for children under 13 and restrictions for children between 13 and 15 years old. The latter could use so-called “mini accounts”, opened with the consent and under the control of parents, with limited functionality and limits on usage time. From the age of 15 onwards it would be possible to create an account independently, but the platforms should still guarantee an ad hoc experience for minors. The text is still in an early stage: it will still have to be examined and negotiated with the Member States and the European Parliament and only after this legislative process can the new rules become definitive and binding – a lot could therefore still change.
The EU proposal on minors under 13 and children: the EU Kids Act
Warning: the system would not only concern Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or YouTube. The proposal also takes into consideration i AI chatbottherefore all the services that allow you to communicate with artificial intelligence, as well as online video games.
Based on the draft EU Kids Act, previewed by Reutersfor younger children the limitations would be even stricter. Below i 3 years access to services considered high risk would not be provided; Between 3 and 12 years use would be possible through services designed for children and under the control of parents. Come on 13 to 14 years old introductory accounts with parental supervision would come into play, while aged 15 and over kids might have personal accounts.
However, an important part of the proposal concerns what companies will have to do within their platforms. Brussels wants to introduce the principle of “safety by design”. What does this mean in simple terms? That when designing any online service also intended for minors, companies will have to take user safety into account from the early planning stages, instead of intervening only after a certain problem has occurred.
This means that platforms should avoid features considered capable of encouraging their compulsive use, such as infinite scrolling, which allows you to continue scrolling content without a precise end, insistent notifications and some dopaminergic reward systems that would create addictions, especially in younger people. Even the algorithms that decide which content to show should be designed to avoid dragging young users towards increasingly extreme sequences of content, the so-called “rabbit holes”.
They would also be expected more effective tools for parental controlautomatically activated security settings and systems that prevent strangers from easily contacting minors’ accounts. Kids should also be able to report harmful content more easily.
Another central point concerns the age verification. Social media and various platforms should verify the age of users when a new account is created. Online gaming services would also be required to carry out checks before downloading video games. The objective is to prevent the personal data limit from remaining merely a piece of data entered independently by the user.
Previous bans on social media: from Spain to Australia
Brussels, however, is not starting from scratch. In Australia, from December 10, 2025major social media platforms must take reasonable steps to prevent anyone under 16 from having an account. Among the affected services are Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat, Reddit and X.
And to be honest too in Europe there are countries that have already moved independently to ban teenagers from the platforms. Spain And Portugalfor example, have introduced measures to limit access to social media to younger users, and France had also planned to block social media for those under 15, which was later annulled by the country’s highest court because it was deemed to be in conflict with fundamental freedoms (for the record, however, the president Emmanuel Macron announced its intention to rework it).
The European proposal therefore arrives at a very particular historical moment, where several governments are already trying to establish what the relationship should be between minors and large digital platforms. Obviously, if the EU Kids Act were to complete its legislative process, the rules would be applied in a coordinated way in all 27 countries of the Union.
