EU Kids Act would bar under-13s from social media and set 15 as account age

Children under the age of 13 would be banned from social media across the European Union under the Kids Act, a package of new rules the European Commission presented on Thursday.

The proposal, set out on 17 September 2026, would rewrite how young people join and use the main online services. It sets 15 as the minimum age for opening an independent social media account, requires age checks when new accounts are created, and reverses the burden of proof for the very largest platforms, which would have to demonstrate that their services are safe by design and suited to the age of their users. The rules cover social media, video sharing, online games, artificial intelligence assistants and chatbots used by anyone under 18, and were framed as a set of obligations for platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

The Commission's president, Ursula von der Leyen, presented the package, saying children were interacting with "the most sophisticated technologies ever created", technologies not designed with their wellbeing in mind. The headline measure is a ban on social media for under-13s.

Under the proposal, the text will now go to negotiations between the European Parliament and the EU member states, the stage at which the detail of the regulation will be settled.

Von der Leyen announced the plan in a speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday 16 September, telling MEPs: "No social media before the age of 13" and "no personal account before 15". Platforms that break the rules could face fines of up to 6% of their worldwide turnover.

How the age checks would work

Under the EU Kids Act, online services and app stores "must use age verification tools", according to the Commission's explanatory note. The note does not spell out whether the checks would apply to every user, although its wording suggests they would.

Providers would be able, for example, to use the EU's own age verification app, which keeps no identity documents and no biometric data. The note describes this as guaranteeing the highest standards of privacy protection. Member states are to be "closely involved" in building this verification ecosystem, according to the same document.

Social media services and video-sharing platforms would be required to verify a user's age whenever a new account is opened. For accounts that already exist, providers would have to estimate the user's age using plausible indicators, such as the date the account was created or credit card data held by the service.

What children could do at each age

The proposal would allow minors to open their own social media accounts only from the age of 15. Between the ages of 13 and 15, parents would be put in control through "mini accounts", created by the parent and used by the child through the parent's account, to reach age-appropriate social media and video-sharing platforms. Those accounts are meant to carry safeguards including limited social contacts and a maximum of one hour of use a day.

Children between 3 and 13 would have no access to social media at all. They could, however, use video-sharing services designed specifically for children through accounts managed by a parent. Platforms would be expected to provide a simple tool that limits an adult's device, while it is in the child's hands, to those child-focused services and caps exposure at one hour a day.

The obligations on platforms

The package introduces the principle of reversing the burden of proof for very large online platforms. Providers would have to show that their services are "safe by design", in other words safe from the design stage onwards and appropriate to the age of the people using them.

The obligations extend to any online service offering social media, video sharing, online video games, AI assistants or chatbots to users under 18. The measures listed include bans on addictive features and on recommendation feeds built on profiling that can drag minors towards harmful content, a measure directed at harm to children. Infinite scrolling with no break points, reward mechanisms and push notifications during sleep hours would all be barred, as would unsolicited contact from strangers.

Minors' profiles would be private by default, with geolocation, the camera and the microphone switched off. Services would also have to offer simple tools to block and mute other users, tools for managing time online, and safe recommendation systems that children themselves can control, change and reset.

The Commission presented the package as a response to the way young people now use social media, video games and chatbots, with tighter obligations for the platforms that provide them. It gave no timetable in the material published alongside the proposal for when the rules would take effect, saying only that the text must now be agreed between the Parliament and the member states.

Reaction and what comes next

More than 130 experts and child protection organisations warned the Commission president in the week before the announcement that an outright ban would, in their words, place the burden of online safety on parents or on children themselves. Privacy groups and cybersecurity experts have also criticised the planned European digital identity wallet, expected by the end of the year, fearing data leaks and a drift towards mandatory authentication.

France, which has pressed for an EU-wide approach, sent a revised version of its under-15s law to the European Commission on 14 September after its constitutional court struck down the original as a disproportionate interference with freedom of expression. The Commission has since opened a public consultation on the Kids Act proposal.

Background: the wider legal picture

The following background draws on the European Commission's published material and the public record of court proceedings.

The Kids Act would sit alongside existing EU digital rules. The Digital Services Act is an EU law that sets rules for online services such as social media networks, online marketplaces and app stores, and its aim is to protect people's rights online across the EU, according to the European Commission.

The Brussels proposal lands while social media court cases over young users continue in the United States. On 25 March 2026, a Los Angeles jury found Meta, the owner of Instagram, and Google, YouTube's parent company, liable in the case of a young woman referred to in court papers as K.G.M. That verdict came in one of the US lawsuits over teen social media addiction.

On 10 September 2026, a judge in Texas found TikTok liable for deceiving parents about how safe the app is. A separate trial to decide penalties was due the following month.

A trial of two further personal injury plaintiffs against Meta, YouTube and Snap is set to begin in Los Angeles on 28 October 2026. A second trial had been due in July, but TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube settled with the plaintiff before it began. The first school-district test case against Meta, Snap, TikTok and YouTube also settled before trial: the claim was brought by Breathitt County School District in Kentucky, and the trial had been set for June 2026. The terms were not disclosed in court; agreements later released under a public-records request were reported to total about US$27 million. The next school-district test trials, for the Tucson Unified and Charleston County districts, are due to begin in 2027.

In the UK, product liability law under the Consumer Protection Act 1987 has usually treated a product as a physical item. One lawyer has argued that social media companies could instead be seen as makers of a digital space, and the Law Commission is examining whether the 1987 Act fits the digital age.

For now, the Kids Act remains a proposal. Its fate rests with the European Parliament and the governments of the EU member states, which must agree the final text before any part of it can take effect.