EU Kids Act would ban social media under 13 and delay teen accounts to 15

Europe just proposed treating teenage social media less like an open playground and more like a learner licence. On 17 September 2026 in Strasbourg, the European Commission adopted the EU KIDS Act, a draft that would ban social media under 13, delay independent accounts until 15, and force the biggest platforms to prove they are safe by design before they keep serving kids.

A graduated path instead of a free-for-all

Under the proposal, children younger than 13 would be locked out of social media accounts. They could still use child-friendly video-sharing services through a guardian-managed account, with exposure capped at one hour per day. For ages 13 through under 15, guardians could create parent-supervised mini accounts under the adult account, again with limited contacts and up to

That one-hour daily limit for the supervised teenage path appears in the Commission press release and news summary, not only in secondary blogs. The Commission says the rules would cover social media, video-sharing platforms, online games, and AI companions and chatbots used by people under 18, while carving out encyclopaedias, educational platforms, and digital news.

Platforms must prove safety, not wait to be caught

Age assurance is meant to make the gates real. Online services and app stores would use privacy-preserving tools, including an EU age verification app that, the Commission says, does not retain identity documents or biometric data. Social media and video-sharing providers would verify age for new accounts and estimate ages for existing ones using reasonable proxies.

Enforcement built on DSA muscle, still only a draft

Very large platforms with 45 million or more monthly active EU users would submit compliance plans for new services or features, assessed with independent auditors and subject to Commission review. Enforcement would build on Digital Services Act and AI Act structures, with investigations aimed at concluding within 90 days. Commission FAQ material says fines can reach 6 percent of worldwide annual turnover.

None of this is law yet. Parliament and the Council can still amend the text. The shift on paper is already clear: Europe wants teen social media to arrive later, run cooler by default, and prove its safety before it claims another hour of a child’s day.

The political punch line is a reversed burden of proof. Providers of very large online platforms would have to show their services are age-appropriate and safe by design, rather than waiting for regulators or parents to document harm later. President Ursula von der Leyen framed the package as putting parents back in the driving seat while making platforms prove their products were built with child wellbeing in mind.

Safety-by-design rules would ban addictive patterns aimed at minors, including infinite scroll without stopping points, reward tricks, night-time push notifications, and unsolicited stranger contact. Profiling-based feeds that drag minors into harmful rabbit holes would be restricted. Profiles for minors would be private by default, with geolocation, camera, and microphone access off. AI companions and chatbots would be off by default and could not simulate relationships that create emotional dependency. one hour a day. From 15 upward, minors could open their own accounts inside a mandatory safe-by-design environment.