EU Unveils Kids Act to Ban Social Media for Under-13s Across 27 Nations

The European Commission formally tabled the EU Kids Act on Thursday, unveiling one of the most far-reaching attempts yet by any government to restrict how children and teenagers use social media, video-sharing platforms and AI chatbots. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the bloc's technology chief, Henna Virkkunen, presented the proposal in Strasbourg as a response to mounting evidence linking heavy platform use to anxiety, sleep disruption and other mental health concerns among minors.

What the law would do

Under the draft rules, children under 13 would be barred from holding standard social media accounts and limited to child-friendly alternatives. Young teenagers between 13 and under 15 would only be allowed "mini-accounts" that require parental or guardian permission, come with default private settings, capped daily screen time of around one hour, and restricted contact lists. Teens aged 15 and above would be free to open their own accounts without parental sign-off.

The legislation leans on a "safe by design" philosophy rather than simply policing content. It would require platforms to strip out features widely blamed for compulsive use, including infinite scroll, artificial push notifications and engagement-driven reward loops. Recommender algorithms would need to be built to avoid steering young users into repetitive, attention-trapping content loops. Companies would also have to demonstrate scientifically that a product is safe before rolling it out to younger users, effectively shifting the burden of proof from regulators to tech firms.

The rules would extend beyond conventional social apps to video-sharing services, online games and AI companion chatbots, which the Commission flagged as posing distinct emotional and psychological risks to developing minds.

Age checks and privacy trade-offs

To verify ages without compromising privacy, the draft calls for an EU-built, open-source age-verification tool relying on zero-knowledge cryptographic proofs, letting a platform confirm a user clears an age threshold without learning their exact birthdate or identity. Legal scholars have already flagged a practical weakness: determined teenagers could still borrow the login credentials of an older sibling or friend to bypass the checks.

Platforms designated as "Very Large Online Platforms" under existing EU digital law would face added obligations, including submitting new features for regulatory review 30 days before launch and funding oversight through a supervisory fee on operators.

Political and business stakes

The proposal follows a French Constitutional Council ruling that struck down a national under-15 social media ban on free-expression grounds, a precedent the Commission is trying to avoid repeating by opting for tiered, supervised access rather than an outright ban for teens. It also comes months after a multi-billion-dollar US settlement between Meta and state attorneys general over allegations that platform design features fostered addictive use among minors.

Von der Leyen framed the effort as a question of sovereignty over children's digital lives. "It is not about our minors accessing social media. It is about when and how we allow social media to access minors," she said. The EU Kids Act must still be negotiated by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU, where member states hold decisive power through qualified-majority voting, meaning the final rules that reach European teenagers' phones could look meaningfully different from Thursday's draft.

For Indian readers, the proposal is being watched closely as a possible template, given India's own ongoing debates over children's data protection and screen-time regulation under its evolving digital rules.

This is an original summary based on public reporting. See our editorial policy for how we source, write, and correct our stories.