The European Commission on Thursday adopted the EU KIDS Act to restrict social media access for children under 13 and set an EU-wide minimum age of 15 for minors to open their own accounts.
“The proposal prohibits social media platforms from accessing children under the age of 13 and sets an EU-wide minimum age for minors to open an account of their own at the age of 15,” a written statement noted.
The act proposes that children can create personal social media accounts only from the age of 15, while allowing parents or guardians of children aged 13 and 14 to set up “mini accounts” that the children can access through their guardians’ accounts.
“This would allow them to access age-appropriate social media and video-sharing platforms,” the statement added.
The proposal also stressed the need for services available through the mini accounts to be designed with safeguards, “such as limited social contacts and limited screen time up to one hour per day”.
While prohibiting access to social media for children aged between three and 13, it allows access to “specially designed child-friendly video-sharing services” through accounts managed by their guardians.
Platforms would also be required to provide parents or guardians with easy-to-use tools to limit children’s access on adult devices to child-friendly services and cap their use at one hour per day.
The act also imposes obligations on online services, including social media, video-sharing platforms, online games, AI companions and chatbots, to protect users under 18.
It aims to ban addictive features and profiling-based recommender feeds that drag minors into “rabbit holes” of harmful content. It also seeks to prohibit infinite scrolling, reward tricks, night-time push notifications and unsolicited contact from strangers.
“In addition, AI companions and chatbots must be turned off by default and cannot simulate interpersonal relationships in ways that create emotional dependency,” the statement further underscored.
Minors’ profiles would be private by default, with geolocation, camera and microphone access disabled.
Platforms are also called on to offer easy ways for minors to block and mute users, effective time-management tools and safe recommender systems.
Online services and app stores will also be required to use age-assurance tools, while the Commission offered the use of an EU age-verification app “which does not retain identity documents or biometric data, thereby meeting the highest privacy-preserving safeguards”.
“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 statement added.
The platforms will therefore be obliged to submit a compliance plan to the Commission and an independent auditor, who must thoroughly assess the new service, feature or functionality.
‘It is time for EU to act’
Speaking at a news briefing on the act, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pointed out that too many children are exposed too early to an online world “they are not ready to navigate”.
“Today, our children are engaging with some of the most sophisticated technology ever created, and it was not created with children’s well-being and development in mind. Platforms are designed to capture attention,” she noted.
She described such addictive features as part of business models designed to keep children online and monetise their attention.
“Parents cannot compete or keep up against algorithms, and they should not have to. (...) It is time for the European Union to act,” von der Leyen underscored.
She further cautioned that the proposed age limits would not let tech companies “off the hook” for their platforms’ content.
“Platforms have been playing fast and loose with our children’s mental health. Now we are reversing the burden of proof. Now they have to prove to us that they are safe,” von der Leyen said.
She reaffirmed that the EU is changing the years-long practice of platforms denying the harm they cause and trying to avoid prescriptive rules while setting their own rules at their own pace.
“So instead of authorities proving harm after the fact, the biggest platforms must submit detailed child safety plans in advance, and that means again that safety will come first,” von der Leyen added.
She noted that the act “puts the parents in the driving seat, and the burden of proving safety on the platforms where it belongs”.
