The European Commission has introduced sweeping draft legislation aimed at overhauling how minors access social media across all 27 EU member states, placing child online safety and parental control at the center of the new regulatory framework. Titled the EU Kids Act, the proposed policy outlines a phased, age-based restriction system designed to limit excessive and unregulated exposure to digital platforms for young users whose cognitive and emotional development is still ongoing.
Under the proposal’s core terms, children under the age of 13 will face a complete ban on creating personal social media accounts across covered platforms. For teenagers between 13 and 15 years old, access will be strictly capped at one hour per day, and any use will only be permitted through specialized “mini accounts” that are linked directly to and managed by a parent or legal guardian’s existing social media profile. Only users aged 15 and older will be eligible to register and maintain independent social media accounts under the new rules.
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, framed the proposal as a critical intervention to address longstanding gaps in child online protection during an address to the European Parliament on Thursday. She emphasized that the legislation would shift regulatory responsibility back to tech firms while giving parents greater agency over their children’s digital habits. “This move puts parents back in the driving seat, von der Leyen stated, adding that the new rules would equip guardians with the tools to help children navigate a more secure online landscape. “Too many children are being exposed too early to an online world they are not ready to navigate — an environment where bullying can follow you home, where every mistake can be recorded forever, she added.
Beyond age-based access limits, the proposal mandates that all social media platforms operating in the bloc must adhere to a strict “safety by design” principle for all user accounts belonging to people under 18. This requires platforms to eliminate algorithmic features that are intentionally addictive, remove toxic content pathways, and avoid deceptive design traps that encourage overuse or unintended exposure to harmful material. Companies will also be required to develop and submit detailed, public child safety strategies to European regulators to demonstrate compliance, and an age limit does not mean letting tech companies off the hook for harmful content on their platforms, von der Leyen clarified. To verify user ages, the plan will leverage the EU’s existing age verification application, eliminating the need to build an entirely new infrastructure from scratch.
The formal announcement of the plan follows months of public debate and preliminary signaling from von der Leyen, who first called for a deliberate delay in children’s access to social media back in May, noting that the conversation around a mandatory minimum age for platform use could no longer be sidelined. The policy was also previewed during the EU chief’s annual State of the Union address to the parliament on Wednesday, one day before its official publication.
Several individual EU member states, including France and Spain, have already advanced their own national-level restrictions on child social media use. If the EU-wide legislation is approved by the European Parliament and Council of the EU, the new bloc-wide rules will replace these existing national measures, though member states will retain the right to implement stricter local rules that go beyond the baseline requirements set in the EU Kids Act.
As currently drafted, the proposal does not specify exactly which social media platforms will be subject to the new regulations. Regulators have drawn policy inspiration from Australia, which implemented a ban on social media use for users under 16 across major platforms including Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok last December. That policy has faced notable enforcement challenges, however: Australian Communications Minister Anika Wells acknowledged earlier this month that no tech firms have been fined to date, despite independent research showing large numbers of under-16 users remain active on banned platforms. The United Kingdom is also set to implement its own ban on under-16 social media use when new rules take effect there next spring, adding to a growing global trend of stricter regulation of minor access to digital platforms.