EU adopts KIDS Act to bar social media for under-13s

The European Commission on Thursday adopted comprehensive child-protection legislation prohibiting social media platforms from allowing children under 13 to create accounts and establishing 15 as the bloc-wide minimum age for minors to maintain independent profiles, according to an official statement.

Age restrictions and 'mini accounts'

The regulation introduces a tiered access system allowing parents or guardians of 13- and 14-year-olds to establish supervised "mini accounts" accessible through guardians' profiles. "This would allow them to access age-appropriate social media and video-sharing platforms," the Commission said, noting that such accounts must incorporate strict safeguards including limited social contacts and daily screen time capped at one hour.

Children aged three to thirteen remain barred from standalone social media access, though the proposal permits supervised use of specially designed child-friendly video services through guardian-managed accounts. Platforms must provide intuitive parental controls to restrict minors' access to adult devices strictly to child-appropriate content while enforcing the one-hour daily limit on screen exposure.

Addictive features and AI restrictions

The legislation imposes sweeping obligations on online services — including social media, video-sharing platforms, online games, AI companions and chatbots — to protect users under 18 from manipulative design practices. "In addition, AI companions and chatbots must be turned off by default and cannot simulate interpersonal relationships in ways that create emotional dependency," the Commission stated in its official communication.

The act specifically targets addictive mechanisms including infinite scroll, reward-based engagement tricks, nighttime push notifications and unsolicited contact from strangers, while banning profiling-based recommender feeds that risk "dragging minors into 'rabbit holes' of harmful content." All minor profiles must default to private settings with geolocation, camera and microphone access disabled, and platforms must offer straightforward tools for blocking and muting users alongside safe recommender systems and effective time-management features.

Verification and compliance obligations

Online services and app stores face mandatory requirements to deploy age-assurance technologies, with the Commission recommending an EU-developed verification application. The tool "does not retain identity documents or biometric data, thereby meeting the highest privacy-preserving safeguards," officials noted.

"The proposal reverses the 'burden of proof,' making the providers of very large online platforms responsible for proving that their services are 'safe by design'," the Commission said. Independent auditors must thoroughly assess any new service, feature or functionality before deployment, ensuring that platforms demonstrate compliance with stringent child-protection standards through submitted compliance plans rather than relying on ex-post regulatory enforcement actions.