European Commission proposes KIDS Act to ban social media for under-13s and restrict accounts under 15

The KIDS Act framework

The European Commission presented a draft regulation on 17 September 2026 to restrict minors from accessing social media and related digital platforms. Under the 55-page EU KIDS Act, children under 13 are completely barred from opening accounts on social networks and video-sharing services. Adolescents aged 13 and 14 are restricted to parent-supervised mini accounts with a strict screen time cap of up to one hour per day. Users can only open independent, full accounts once they reach age 15. The legislation also applies to online video games, AI chatbots, and app stores. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the measure in Strasbourg, pointing to concerns over youth mental health.

Today, our children are interacting with some of the most sophisticated technologies ever created, and they were not designed with their well-being and development in mind.

Design standards and verification

The draft law introduces a safety-by-design requirement for online services accessible to minors. Companies must prove their platforms are safe before commercial launch, reversing the previous regulatory burden where authorities had to demonstrate harm before penalising tech firms. Platforms must eliminate addictive features such as infinite scrolling, gamified reward loops, push notifications during nighttime sleeping hours, and unsolicited direct messages from strangers. Age verification must rely on independent certified systems such as zero-knowledge proofs and the upcoming European Digital Identity wallet rather than platform-managed checks. For existing accounts, services have six months from the law taking effect to audit users and disable profiles belonging to children under 15 whose age cannot be established.

Industry warnings and political debate

Tech trade groups and member states have expressed divergent views on the proposed rules. The Computer and Communications Industry Association Europe warned that large-scale centralized storage of youth identification documents creates severe cybersecurity vulnerabilities. CCIA Europe Director Daniel Friedlaender stated that collecting identity papers and parental data creates an attractive target for cybercriminals and duplicates existing European Union regulations. Inside the European Council, national governments hold differing positions on age thresholds. Paris advocates an age limit of 15, while Berlin prefers setting the baseline at 13. Digital ministers from the Netherlands and Ireland expressed support for the shared safety objective while noting preferences for higher national age thresholds, whereas Estonia and Italy have opposed mandatory access limits.

The harms have come to outweigh the benefits of social media and it is time for the EU to regulate at the design level, not simply accepting that responsibility be pushed on to parents.

Global momentum on youth access

The European proposal follows a wave of international restrictions on adolescent social media usage enacted throughout 2025 and 2026. Australia enacted legislation in December 2025 penalising non-compliant platforms up to 49.5 million Australian dollars ($35.2 million) for failing to block users under 16. In 2026, Greece and Turkey enacted age bans for children under 15, while Malaysia, Indonesia, and India's state of Karnataka introduced bans for users under 16. The United Arab Emirates prohibited personal accounts for children under 15 in June, and California enacted protections against addictive digital features for minors in September. The European Commission aims to conclude negotiations with the European Parliament and member state governments within eight to twelve months.