European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen unveils the EU Kids Act during her SOTU address, proposing banning social media for under-13s across the EU
A proposed law would bar children under 13 from using social media across the 27-nation bloc. — The European Union outlined plans …
New York Times
Context & Ripple Effects
The Commission had signaled in July that it was preparing a “social media start date” with gradual access, and leaked planning documents broadened the prospective EU Kids Act beyond social networks to video platforms, games and AI chatbots. The SOTU proposal turns that earlier commitment to age-gated access into a concrete EU-wide under-13 threshold.
The accompanying details make enforcement the operational center of the proposal: networks would need age-verification tools to block under-13s and restrict under-15 accounts. It follows the Commission’s wider willingness to classify large online services such as platforms covered by the planned Kids Act according to their access and safety obligations.
First-order effects
Social networks serving the EU would need to build or procure age-verification and account-control systems capable of excluding under-13 users and applying the proposed under-15 restrictions.
Children below the proposed threshold would lose access to personal social-media accounts across the bloc, while parents and platforms would face a more formal age-check process.
Second-order effects
Age-assurance vendors and identity providers gain a clearer route into platform compliance spending, as the proposal makes verification rather than self-declared birth dates the key enforcement mechanism.
Platforms that also operate video, gaming or chatbot services will press for clear product-by-product scope, because the Commission’s earlier planning documents placed those services within the Act’s intended reach.
Third-order effects
If adopted and enforced consistently, the Act would shift youth online safety from platform-set age policies toward EU-mandated access controls, making age assurance a core layer of consumer-platform infrastructure.
A single bloc-wide age floor would concentrate policy influence at the Commission level, while the public debate already exposes tension between harmonized EU rules and member-state control over child-access policy.
The trend: The EU Kids Act is part of a shift toward regulating online child safety through mandatory age-gated access rather than voluntary platform policies.
This would be terrible for the next generation of humanity. The apps and games of today are the paintbrushes and tree forts of yesterday. Fortnite has Creative Mode, Roblox has Roblox studio, and being a digital creator is in everyone's reach, till politicians take it away.
This sort of social media regulation by Brussels is a classic example of something that should be left up to individual member-states and not the EU. The mission-creep is non-stop. https://www.rte.ie/...
EU's von der Leyen: Tomorrow, the Commission is proposing the Kids Act. We will take a gradual and differentiated approach. No social media under the age of 13, no personal account under the age of 15. From 13 to under 15, only accounts set up and supervised by parents or guar…
The government is not your co-parent. If you're too scared to tell your kids no, that's your problem. Stop asking Brussels to do it for you. (And that's before we get into the fact that it creates a burden to collect IDs from everyone, destroying anonymity.)
It's taken an awful long time for the @EU_Commission to make up it's mind but I welcome the plans set out by @vonderleyen to introduce a ban on all under 13s on social media - the policing of the measure must be the next focus #SOTU
We, however, recommend an alternative to the proposal to give parental control over accounts of 13 to 14-year-olds. While important, it overlooks the reality that parental control, especially where it includes content supervision, may not always be in children's best interests.
.@amnesty welcomes the focus on safety-by-design. The approach recognizes that addictive & harmful product design must be strictly regulated, with bans on infinite scrolling & autoplay & strict limitations on how algorithmic feeds are shaped.
“It is not about our minors accessing social media. It is about when and how do we allow social media to access minors.” Below President @vonderleyen at #SOTEU ↓
We do not have to accept big tech's harmful features for our children. Tomorrow, we are proposing the KIDS ACT. For each age, a tailored protection level on online platforms. And we will present a Digital Fairness Act - addressing online harms for all, not only minors. #SOTEU
In her State of the Union address, President von der Leyen stressed the exceptional geopolitical challenges and incredible speed of change that Europe is facing. …
Ursula von der Leyen just gave her 2026 State of the Union Address where she announced that tomorrow, the Commission will be proposing the EU KIDS ACT …
@FT Similar bans achieved very little in Australia. In fact, they've just made everyday usage go underground. Educating kids and parents on how to use social media beats bans. But I suspect this is more about politics and economics vs safeguarding.
Every parent has the power to control access to SoMe for their children. STOP LYING TO PEOPLE. This is about you wanting control. About you taking us from a free society with negative freedom, to a velvet totalitarian Nanny state with positive “freedom
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. Read the full story here: https://www.ft.com/...