EU proposes social media ban for under-13s and strict curbs up to age 15

Children under the age of 13 will be banned from social media, and teenagers under 15 will face strict, parentally supervised limits under sweeping new European Union proposals.

The draft legislation, known as the KIDS Act, represents the most aggressive effort yet by a major Western regulator to claw back the influence of tech giants over young people. Unveiled by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during her annual address in Strasbourg, the rules will also target online games and artificial intelligence chatbots.

Under the planned tiered system, children under 13 will be blocked from standard social media entirely. Teenagers aged 13 and 14 will only be allowed to use "mini accounts." These restricted profiles must be set up and supervised by a parent or guardian, feature limited functionality, and lock automatically after one hour of daily use. For teenagers between 15 and 18, platforms will be legally required to implement "safe by design" settings by default.

The legislation takes aim at the engineering behind digital addiction. It proposes a total ban on features like infinite scrolling for minors. Platforms that fail to comply with the new safety standards face severe financial penalties, with fines reaching up to six percent of their global annual turnover.

"Europe has the power to act," von der Leyen told the European Parliament. "It is we who decide our rules, not Big Tech. We do not have to accept addictive features." She added that the core issue was no longer about minors accessing social media, but "when and how do we allow social media to access minors."

To illustrate the human cost of the issue, von der Leyen paid tribute to Olea, a 14-year-old Belgian girl who died by suicide a month ago following online bullying. Quoting the girl's mother, von der Leyen said: "I am convinced that without these omnipresent networks, my daughter would still be here."

The proposals follow intense lobbying from member states, including France, Denmark, and Greece, which have pushed Brussels for bloc-wide action to protect children online. The political momentum is part of a broader global shift; Australia passed a social media ban for under-16s last year, and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who watched the address from the parliamentary chamber, is leading similar efforts in Canada.

Yet, the practicalities of enforcing such a ban remain highly controversial. Tech experts and privacy advocates have repeatedly questioned how platforms can reliably verify a user’s age without compromising their personal data.

Agustin Reyna, representing the European consumer organisation BEUC, warned that the reliance on age-check technology is highly problematic. "Age verification is not a silver bullet and would raise serious privacy and data protection concerns," Reyna said.

The European Commission is expected to formally present the detailed draft of the KIDS Act alongside tech chief Henna Virkkunen. However, the proposals are still months, if not years, away from becoming law. The draft must now undergo intense negotiations and amendments by EU member states and the European Parliament before it can be enacted.