The EU is set to ban the use of social media, certain gaming platforms and AI chatbots by children under 15 without parental supervision, as part of a wider push to protect them online.
“No social media under the age of 13. No personal account under the age of 15,” European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said in a speech on Wednesday. “Europe has the power to act. It is us who decide the rules, not big tech.”
Details of the measures will be unveiled in a so-called Kids Act on Thursday, in response to political pressure from several EU countries. Countries including France and Greece have long been pushing Brussels to impose restrictions on children’s access to social media.
In a wide-ranging speech that laid out the various threats to the EU, von der Leyen described AI as “the second tipping point of our times” — alongside climate change — and said humanity could only “unlock AI’s possibilities” if the risks were “addressed”.
“[AI] models being developed will allow hacking on a level we never thought possible. And they will soon be in the hands of adversaries who see the world very differently from us,” she said.
She proposed that Brussels “team up” with countries such as Canada and the UK “on model evaluation, verification, early warning, AI security and much more”.
According to a draft proposal of the social media restrictions seen by the FT, children under 13 will only be allowed access with supervision from parents. Children between 13 and 15 will only be allowed to create accounts with parental control and with certain restrictions, such as time limits.
“We do not have to accept children being drawn into ever more extreme content,” von der Leyen said in Wednesday’s speech. “We do not have to accept that girls have their photos used for AI-generated sexualised images.
“We are reversing the burden of proof. Platforms will have to prove to us that they are safe. Because it is not about our minors accessing social media. It is about when and how do we allow social media to access our minors,” she added.
Social media companies, online gaming services and AI chatbots will have to introduce safeguards to curb abuse and addictive behaviour. AI companion and chatbot services will also have to avoid designs that encourage children to form unhealthy emotional attachments or expose them to harmful exchanges.
The companies will be obliged to verify the age of users using an official verification app. If they do not comply with the rules, they will risk fines of up to 6 per cent of their global annual turnover, according to the draft.
The restrictions on minors would come in addition to existing EU digital rules, including the AI Act and the Digital Services Act, which govern how platforms handle illegal and harmful content. US President Donald Trump has accused Brussels of targeting American companies and threatened tariffs in response to enforcement actions.
Commission officials argue that concerns over addictive design, weak age checks and the impact of social media on children’s mental health now extend well beyond Europe. They point to Meta’s recent settlement with several US states over claims that its platforms harmed children’s mental health.
