The European Commission plans to prohibit anyone under 15 from accessing social networks, video sharing services, AI chatbots, and online games. A draft document obtained by Reuters outlines the most aggressive regulatory push yet to shield minors from digital threats.
This move arrives amid intensifying global scrutiny of how platforms like Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and ChatGPT affect young users’ wellbeing and safety. The proposal forms the core of an EU Kids Act that Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and tech chief Henna Virkkunen will unveil Thursday. Von der Leyen may preview key elements during her State of the Union policy address the prior day.
The draft framework advocates a tiered access model tied to age. Companies would shoulder obligations scaled to their service type and the ages of their youngest users. “The Union’s approach should allow minors to benefit from the huge potential of digital services, while protecting them from abuse and exploitation,” the document states. “It requires limiting tech companies’ access to our children, not the other way around.”
Under the proposed rules, platforms must fund regulatory oversight through a supervisory fee. Users aged 15 and older could create accounts independently. Those aged 13 to 14 would need parental approval to open introductory accounts with restricted contacts and strict time caps. Children aged 3 to 12 would get fully parent-managed accounts limited to child-appropriate services meeting stringent safety benchmarks. No access would exist for children under 3.
The draft also mandates that companies eliminate addictive design features and harmful recommendation feeds. Platforms must supply tools allowing children to report dangerous content easily, plus robust parental controls. Age verification would become compulsory for new social media and video-sharing accounts, as well as before downloading any online game platform.
Currently, most tech companies set minimum signup ages at 13 and claim existing safeguards suffice. The Commission declined to comment. Final language could shift before EU member states and the European Parliament begin negotiating the draft into law over the coming months.
