Summary

• The proposed EU KIDS Act would prevent under-13s from accessing social media and restrict independent accounts until age 15.
• Platforms, app stores, games, video services, and AI companions would face new age-checking and safety-by-design requirements.
• Parliament and member states must still negotiate the proposal, including its age thresholds, privacy safeguards, and relationship with existing digital rules.

The European Commission has proposed a new age-based rulebook for children using social media, video platforms, online games, and AI services, pushing Europe towards a far more prescriptive model of online child protection.

Under the proposed EU KIDS Act, children under 13 would be unable to use social media services, while those aged 13 and 14 could access restricted “mini accounts” managed by a parent or guardian. Those accounts would have limited functionality and a one-hour daily usage cap, with independent social-media accounts permitted from age 15.

The proposal reaches well beyond social networks, because services used by minors would also have to restrict features associated with compulsive use, including infinite scrolling and some reward mechanisms, while push notifications would be limited during sleeping hours. Children’s accounts would be private by default, unsolicited contact from strangers would be prohibited, and blocking and muting controls would have to be easy to use.

AI services are brought directly into the framework as conversational systems become part of the wider child-safety debate. AI companions and chatbots would have to be disabled by default for minors, while services would be prevented from designing interactions intended to foster emotional dependency.

Age assurance moves into platform infrastructure

The proposal would require social-media and video-sharing services to verify age when a new account is opened, while app stores and other affected services would also have to use age-checking tools. The Commission has been developing an EU-wide verification framework intended to let users prove that they meet an age threshold without disclosing their full identity, with member states being encouraged to make compatible systems available by the end of 2026.

Age assurance would therefore move from a specialist compliance function towards a basic layer of digital-service infrastructure. Platforms would need to connect account creation, parental controls, recommendation systems, privacy settings, and product design to a verified or certified understanding of the user’s age rather than relying primarily on self-declaration.

Although the Commission presents its verification architecture as privacy-preserving, the technical model remains contested. Privacy advocates have questioned whether age-checking systems can avoid widening identity infrastructure across the internet, while industry groups have raised concerns about duplication with obligations already imposed through the EU’s existing digital rulebook.

The practical argument is therefore partly about implementation rather than the principle of protecting children online. Reliable checks have to distinguish between age groups without demanding more personal information than necessary, while platforms operating across the EU will need to reconcile those checks with data protection, fraud prevention, parental consent, account recovery, and the predictable attempts by some users to circumvent restrictions.

Product design becomes a regulatory issue

The KIDS Act would deepen a direction already visible in the Digital Services Act, with regulation moving further into how digital products are built and operated rather than concentrating only on harmful content after it has appeared. The Commission says very large platforms would carry a greater burden of demonstrating that their services are safe for children and designed around their wellbeing.

That approach overlaps with a broader European argument over engagement mechanics. France has already pushed addictive platform design higher up the regulatory agenda, an issue Techopia examined earlier this month, while the Commission is preparing separate digital-fairness rules intended to address manipulative and addictive product design.

If the KIDS Act survives negotiations in broadly recognisable form, product teams serving Europe would face a more fragmented experience by age group. Recommendation engines, notifications, contact permissions, advertising, screen-time controls, AI features, and registration flows could all behave differently depending on whether a user is under 13, between 13 and 15, or older.

Those distinctions have technical and commercial consequences, because age-sensitive product architecture has to operate across millions of accounts, multiple languages, different national identity systems, and services whose economics may depend heavily on personalised recommendations and sustained engagement. Smaller platforms would also have to determine where their obligations begin as games, messaging, video, social networking, and AI functionality continue to overlap.

The proposal is not yet law, and the European Parliament and member states in the Council will be able to change both the age thresholds and the mechanisms used to enforce them. Even so, the Commission has now placed age verification, engagement design, and AI companions inside the same legislative package, turning child safety into a question of platform architecture as much as content moderation.