EU aims to restrict social media for children under 15

The rules would set an EU-wide legal age limit on social media services for the first time

The European Union will propose limiting access to social media for children under 15 years old in a flagship “Kids Act” that will be unveiled on Thursday.

A policy document seen by Bloomberg News shows that the bloc’s executive branch, the European Commission, will demand that social media companies, online gaming services and AI chatbots age-gate their services to keep out the youngest teens. They will also need to adopt safety features to minimize abuse and addictive behaviours, according to the document, which is a draft that might change before it’s published.

Under the proposal, the EU would establish a minimum age of 15 to open an “autonomous account,” the document states, referring to an account without parental supervision. Children between three and 13 years old will only be allowed access to services tailored for children and with full parental supervision. Minors aged 13 and 14 will be allowed accounts on mainstream platforms with significant restrictions including daily time limits and parental controls.

The rules would set an EU-wide legal age limit on social media services for the first time. The EU has been under pressure from member states to introduce bloc-wide rules as the world movement to restrict children’s access to social media gains steam. Individual EU members states have been planning their own limits in the wake of curbs first introduced by Australia last year.

The Kids Act proposal will still have to obtain the backing of European governments and lawmakers, a process that can take years.

Platforms in scope of the proposed new rules will have to ensure to verify the age of every user creating a new account using an official EU verification app or equivalent mechanism.

Breaching the Kids Act could result in fines. The draft document states that the enforcement framework is modelled after other tech rulebooks in the bloc such as the Digital Services Act and AI Act, which carry the risk of high penalties tied to a company’s total worldwide sales. Platforms will also have to pay a supervisory fee to fund the commission’s supervision.