The European Commission has proposed a bloc-wide ban on social media use for children under 13, unveiled by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in her State of the Union address in Strasbourg on September 16. The measure is part of a broader EU Kids Act that the Commission plans to detail in full today, the Associated Press reported.
Under the proposal, children aged 13 to 15 would not be permitted personal social media accounts. Instead, they would use “mini accounts” set up and supervised by parents or guardians, with limited features and restricted daily access time. Platforms would be required to provide a “safe design” for users aged 15 to 18. The plan still requires debate and a vote among the EU’s 27 member states, a process expected to take years.
Von der Leyen framed the proposal as a response to platform design rather than children’s behavior. “We do not have to accept addictive features,” she said. “We do not have to accept children being drawn into ever more extreme content. We do not have to accept that girls have their photos used for AI-generated sexualized images.” She added that the bloc, not the platforms, would set the terms: “Europe has the power to act. It is us who decide the rules, not Big Tech.”
A Patchwork the EU Wants to Replace
Seventeen of the EU’s 27 member states are already negotiating or drafting their own youth social media restrictions, creating the kind of fragmented national rules the Commission’s proposal is designed to supersede. France offers a cautionary example: its top court struck down a national ban on social media for under-15s last month, ruling it infringed on freedom of expression, and President Emmanuel Macron has said he will rework the measure.
Technology lawyer Arnav Joshi of Ashurst Perkins Coie told WIRED that reconciling national efforts and moving the proposal through the EU legislative process will likely take until 2029, though he expects companies to welcome a single set of rules over 27 separate ones. He also noted the tiered structure is designed partly to withstand legal challenges by avoiding a blanket cutoff, calling the EU’s approach “perhaps even a little bit more permissive” than the sweeping bans already in place in the UK and Australia.
Verification and Oversight Remain Open Questions
Enforcement is likely to be the proposal’s hardest test. Joanna Conway, a digital regulation partner at Norton Rose Fulbright, told WIRED that accurate age verification “is not straightforward” without compromising privacy or user experience. The EU introduced an app earlier this year allowing users to prove they are over 18 for access to age-restricted sites, which officials say could be adapted for other age thresholds. Joshi separately warned that parental oversight tools carrying broad access to a child’s account activity could have “a bit of a chilling effect” on how children use a service and could raise privacy concerns of their own. Children in Australia have already found ways around that country’s under-16 social media ban, a precedent EU officials will need to address.
The announcement lands alongside other regulatory pressure on platforms. Meta agreed last month to pay up to $18 billion and adopt additional child-safety measures on Facebook and Instagram to settle a U.S. trial over teen social media addiction. In Strasbourg, Manfred Weber, head of the European Parliament’s largest political group, proposed the EU follow Australia in letting users switch off recommendation algorithms altogether. Von der Leyen also said the Commission plans to address addictive design more broadly through a forthcoming Digital Fairness Act this autumn.
Dragomir is a Serbian freelance blog writer and translator. He is passionate about covering insightful stories and exploring topics such as influencer marketing, the creator economy, technology, business, and cyber fraud.
The European Commission has proposed a bloc-wide ban on social media use for children under 13, unveiled by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in her State of the Union address in Strasbourg on September 16. The measure is part of a broader EU Kids Act that the Commission plans to detail in full today, the Associated Press reported.
Under the proposal, children aged 13 to 15 would not be permitted personal social media accounts. Instead, they would use “mini accounts” set up and supervised by parents or guardians, with limited features and restricted daily access time. Platforms would be required to provide a “safe design” for users aged 15 to 18. The plan still requires debate and a vote among the EU’s 27 member states, a process expected to take years.
Von der Leyen framed the proposal as a response to platform design rather than children’s behavior. “We do not have to accept addictive features,” she said. “We do not have to accept children being drawn into ever more extreme content. We do not have to accept that girls have their photos used for AI-generated sexualized images.” She added that the bloc, not the platforms, would set the terms: “Europe has the power to act. It is us who decide the rules, not Big Tech.”
A Patchwork the EU Wants to Replace
Seventeen of the EU’s 27 member states are already negotiating or drafting their own youth social media restrictions, creating the kind of fragmented national rules the Commission’s proposal is designed to supersede. France offers a cautionary example: its top court struck down a national ban on social media for under-15s last month, ruling it infringed on freedom of expression, and President Emmanuel Macron has said he will rework the measure.
Technology lawyer Arnav Joshi of Ashurst Perkins Coie told WIRED that reconciling national efforts and moving the proposal through the EU legislative process will likely take until 2029, though he expects companies to welcome a single set of rules over 27 separate ones. He also noted the tiered structure is designed partly to withstand legal challenges by avoiding a blanket cutoff, calling the EU’s approach “perhaps even a little bit more permissive” than the sweeping bans already in place in the UK and Australia.
Verification and Oversight Remain Open Questions
Enforcement is likely to be the proposal’s hardest test. Joanna Conway, a digital regulation partner at Norton Rose Fulbright, told WIRED that accurate age verification “is not straightforward” without compromising privacy or user experience. The EU introduced an app earlier this year allowing users to prove they are over 18 for access to age-restricted sites, which officials say could be adapted for other age thresholds. Joshi separately warned that parental oversight tools carrying broad access to a child’s account activity could have “a bit of a chilling effect” on how children use a service and could raise privacy concerns of their own. Children in Australia have already found ways around that country’s under-16 social media ban, a precedent EU officials will need to address.
The announcement lands alongside other regulatory pressure on platforms. Meta agreed last month to pay up to $18 billion and adopt additional child-safety measures on Facebook and Instagram to settle a U.S. trial over teen social media addiction. In Strasbourg, Manfred Weber, head of the European Parliament’s largest political group, proposed the EU follow Australia in letting users switch off recommendation algorithms altogether. Von der Leyen also said the Commission plans to address addictive design more broadly through a forthcoming Digital Fairness Act this autumn.
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