Brussels proposes a social media bar for children under 13

The European Commission on 17 September tabled the EU KIDS Act, a draft regulation that would bar children under 13 from social media across the 27-member bloc and keep 13- and 14-year-olds on parent-controlled "mini accounts" limited to one hour a day. Independent accounts would start at 15. Ursula von der Leyen presented the text after her State of the Union speech in Strasbourg. It now goes to the European Parliament and the Council. There is no start date.

The draft covers social media, video-sharing platforms, online games, and AI companions and chatbots. Under-13s could still use child-oriented video services through an account run by a parent or guardian. From 13 to under 15, a guardian would open a restricted account with a short contact list and the one-hour cap. From 15, a young person could open and manage an account. For everyone under 18 the draft switches off, by default, infinite scroll, reward tricks, night notifications, profiling-based recommender feeds, personalised ads based on past activity, and unsolicited messages from strangers. Profiles would be private. Geolocation, camera and microphone access would be off. AI companions would be off unless a parent turns them on.

Platforms would have to verify age when an account is opened, using age-assurance tools that include a Commission app already in development. Within six months of the rules applying, they would have to check existing accounts and disable those belonging to children under 15 or to users whose age cannot be established. Services with 45 million or more monthly active users in the EU would have to file compliance plans before they come into contact with children. The burden of proof sits on the company: it must show the service is safe for children, rather than wait for a regulator to prove it is not. Fines can reach 6 percent of worldwide annual sales. Firms would also pay a supervisory fee to fund the watchdogs.

Von der Leyen said children in the Union now spend four to six hours a day on screens and that feeds are built to keep them scrolling. "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 said. She framed the law as putting "parents back in the driving seat." Australia last year barred under-16s from social media, the first national ban of that width. Several EU states have already passed or drafted their own age limits. The Commission has told some of them they would have to repeal those national laws once a bloc regulation is in force, because member states would not be able to opt out.

Industry groups have already pointed at the age-assurance machinery. A tech lobbying body warned that checking a child's age at sign-up can turn into a new store of identity data. The draft tries to answer that by pointing at the Commission's own verification app, but the app is not yet the law and the law is not yet passed. Enforcement will also run into the same problem every age-gate hits: virtual private networks, borrowed accounts, and parents who hand over credentials.

The politics inside the file are slower than the press conference. Parliament and the Council can raise or lower the age cuts, shrink the product list, or water down the default bans on recommender systems. Games companies will argue they are not social media. Video platforms will argue a parent-supervised YouTube mode already exists. Chatbot firms will argue a default-off companion is a product kill. None of those fights change the structure von der Leyen put on the table: three age bands, a one-hour cap in the middle band, and fines calibrated like the Digital Services Act.

Until the two legislators finish, the draft is a map of Commission intent, not a rule a 12-year-old in Lyon has to obey. The useful detail for anyone who has to build or block an account is already in the text. Under 13, no social account. Thirteen and 14, a parent-run hour. Fifteen, a personal account with the under-18 defaults still on. That ladder is what the next months of negotiation will try to move.