The European Union is proposing a bloc-wide regime that would bar children under 13 from social media entirely and prevent anyone under 15 from holding an independent, unsupervised account—allowing only tightly controlled “mini accounts” for 13–14-year-olds with parental oversight and strict usage caps. The plan, unveiled as the EU KIDS Act by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, shifts the burden of proof onto platforms to demonstrate their services are safe for minors and backs the rules with steep fines of up to 6% of global annual revenue for non-compliance
What the proposal says, by age group
- Under 13: No social media accounts permitted on covered platforms
- Ages 13–14 (under 15): Only “mini accounts” created and supervised by a parent or guardian, with limited features and a hard cap of one hour per day of use
- Ages 15–17: Independent accounts allowed, but platforms must provide “safe-by-design” experiences for all under-18 users, including strong safeguards and parental control tools.
- 15 and above: Young people may open their own accounts, subject to continued safety obligations on platforms.
Scope: which services are covered
The rules are not limited to classic social networks. The proposal explicitly covers social media and video-sharing services, online video games, AI companions and chatbots, and related features used by under-18s. That means services such as TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, certain gaming environments, and AI chatbots would fall under the same safety-by-design and age-assurance obligations when they offer services to minors.
Safety-by-design obligations for platforms
To qualify as safe for minors, platforms would need to eliminate or restrict a range of features linked to excessive or risky use. The draft obligations include bans on:
- Addictive design patterns such as infinite scroll and reward tricks.
- Profiling-based recommender feeds for children.
- Unsolicited contact from strangers, with easy-to-use tools to block and mute users.
- AI companions and chatbots turned off by default for child users.
Platforms must also design algorithms that are safe for children and provide straightforward parental controls, including the ability to set time limits, pre-approve contacts, and cap the number of other users a child can interact with.
Age assurance and enforcement
A core enforcement lever is age verification at account creation. The proposal envisions the use of EU-certified age-assurance tools, including a dedicated EU age verification app or approved third-party solutions, to confirm a user’s age before granting access.
Non-compliant companies face fines of up to 6% of global annual sales, plus a supervisory fee to fund regulators’ oversight. Very large platforms—those with 45 million or more monthly active users in the EU—would additionally need to submit compliance plans to the Commission.
How the law would be adopted
The EU KIDS Act is a Commission proposal that must now be negotiated and approved by EU member states and the European Parliament before becoming binding law. Once adopted, the EU-wide rules would take precedence over existing national initiatives, obliging all 27 member states to align their frameworks with the new regime.
Why this matters for publishers and tech operators
For media companies, app developers, and AI service providers with EU users, the proposal signals a shift from voluntary codes to mandatory, auditable safety requirements tied to product design and access control. Key operational implications include:
- Building or integrating EU-certified age-assurance flows at sign-up.
- Re-engineering recommendation systems and engagement mechanics to comply with no profiling-based feeds and no addictive features for minors.
- Implementing robust parental dashboards for mini accounts, with enforceable time caps and contact controls.
- Preparing for regulatory reporting and potential fines scaled to global revenue.
If enacted as proposed, the EU would set one of the world’s strictest baseline regimes for children’s access to social media, effectively delaying independent account ownership until 15 while mandating safer defaults for all under-18 users.
– Rithvisha Kiran
