EU proposal would restrict children’s social media access, impose safety-by-default rules

Commission has published a draft law — called the "EU KIDS Act" in media coverage — that limits how and when minors can use social media, video-sharing services, online games and AI chatbots. The proposal follows research and high-profile incidents tying some online features and chatbots to harms affecting children's wellbeing.

What the draft requires, in plain terms

• Children under 13 would not be allowed regular social media accounts.
• Children aged 13–14 could use "mini accounts" that are managed through a parent or guardian's account. These mini accounts would have clear restrictions, for example a one-hour daily screen-time cap.
• Young people aged 15 and over could set up their own social media accounts.

The draft requires platforms to make services safe for minors before children can use them. Concrete measures in the proposal include:

• Default privacy for children's profiles and disabling of location, camera and microphone by default.
• Bans on profiling-based recommender feeds that push personalised content to children.
• Bans on reward-type mechanisms and addictive features such as endless scrolling and push notifications while children are sleeping.

• Specific limits on AI chatbots: they must not simulate interpersonal relationships in ways that create emotional dependency.

Platforms would need to prepare and submit a "compliance plan" to the European Commission and to an independent auditor before rolling out any new service or feature that could reach minors. The auditor assesses whether the company's measures are adequate. If not, the commission can demand corrective measures.

Brussels has been developing an age-check app designed to give platforms a cryptographic yes/no on whether a user is above or below the legal threshold. The commission says the app would not share personal data with platforms. Platforms are not forced to use the EU app but must deploy some form of age-assurance tool.

What this means for parents and platforms

For parents: the draft puts more control in guardians' hands, through supervised mini accounts and limits on what features children can access. For platforms: engineering, product and compliance teams would need to plan for default privacy settings, new age-assurance flows and independent audits before launching child-facing features.

Stakeholder consultations and interinstitutional negotiations will define the final rules. If adopted, the law would apply across the EU and override national laws that set different age limits or safeguards.