EU Unveils Sweeping KIDS Act to Ban Social Media Under 13 and Curb Access Until 15

The European Union has announced plans to ban social media for children under 13 and restrict older minors to supervised accounts under sweeping new legislation known as the KIDS Act. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen unveiled the tiered framework during her annual State of the Union address in Strasbourg, France, targeting what she described as digital platforms capturing the attention and minds of young users. The policy arrives amid a global wave of regulatory action on youth online safety, following similar moves in countries such as Australia.

The proposed rules establish strict age boundaries across the 27-member bloc. Children under 13 will be barred entirely from personal social media accounts, while adolescents aged 13 to 15 will be restricted to supervised mini accounts with limited features and a mandatory one-hour daily time limit. Platforms will also be required to enforce safe design obligations for users up to the age of 18. According to accompanying draft documents, the legislation extends beyond traditional social media to include certain online gaming services and artificial intelligence chatbots, while explicitly prohibiting addictive features such as infinite scrolling for minors.

The European Commission and tech chief Henna Virkkunen are scheduled to formally present the comprehensive KIDS Act text. Under the draft proposals, technology companies failing to comply with the new mandates face severe financial penalties, including fines of up to six percent of their global annual turnover. The bloc is also preparing an official age verification app to support compliance across member states, though the mechanisms of enforcement remain subject to upcoming negotiations between European capitals and the European Parliament, a legislative process expected to take several months.

The initiative responds to intense pressure from member states including France, Denmark, and Greece, which have sought unified regional action to combat online harms. While the European Union has previously utilized the Digital Services Act to press companies like Meta Platforms and TikTok to alter engagement features, Brussels officials concluded that existing legal instruments remain insufficient to protect minors from sleep loss, anxiety, and self-harm linked to excessive digital consumption.

Digital rights organizations and consumer advocates have raised immediate questions regarding the practical implementation of the age restrictions and the deployment of official verification infrastructure. Agustin Reyna, director general of the European consumer organization BEUC, cautioned that age verification is not a universal solution and introduces significant privacy and data protection challenges. Legal experts observing the proposal similarly noted that deep parental monitoring features could inadvertently infringe upon minors' rights to personal privacy and alter how young users interact with digital services.

The proposed framework attempts to navigate judicial hurdles that have previously tripped up national-level bans. Legal analysts pointed out that by avoiding a blanket prohibition for older teens and adopting a tiered, proportionate approach, the EU framework may preempt certain free expression challenges that recently struck down domestic age-restriction efforts in member states like France. Technology companies are expected to face complex compliance adjustments as they balance mandatory safety obligations with regional data privacy laws.

The planned restrictions on minors form part of a broader regulatory push by Brussels to curtail manipulative digital architecture. President von der Leyen noted that the harms of addictive design extend beyond children, signaling that additional measures will be proposed under an upcoming Digital Fairness Act in the autumn. The broader agenda targets platform interfaces that manipulate user attention across all age groups.

Alongside the KIDS Act, the European leadership addressed the broader economic and societal integration of artificial intelligence, noting upcoming initiatives in November aimed at steering AI development toward tangible industrial productivity across health, transport, and defense. The Commission also reiterated plans for a Quality Jobs Act designed to safeguard workforce standards and professional development as automated systems expand across European industries.