Germany weighs social media curbs for children as EU Kids Act goes out to consultation

Germany could introduce its own restrictions on children's social media use as soon as this month, under plans being prepared by the federal government while a far-reaching European proposal works its way through the EU's legislative machinery.

Federal Education Minister Karin Prien of the CDU has said she will present German measures by the middle of October. The move comes weeks after she presented, in Berlin on 11 September 2026, a 117-page report from the expert commission on child and youth protection in the digital world (Expertenkommission Kinder- und Jugendschutz in der digitalen Welt), an 18-strong panel of specialists whose recommendations include a minimum age for social media use and a nationwide mobile phone ban in schools.

The timing matters for families. On 17 September 2026, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen introduced the EU Kids Act, a draft regulation that would exclude children under 13 from social media altogether and place tight limits on what teenagers aged 13 to 15 can do online. Because the German report is intended as a faster, transitional solution until the EU law takes effect, parents, teachers and young people in Germany are watching two parallel lawmaking processes at once.

The scale of the problem the measures address

The debate over a German ban has been running since Australia brought in its own prohibition on social media for children and young people under 16, which entered into force on 10 December 2025. In Germany, the discussion has been emotional, and the figures cited are large.

A study on media addiction published in 2025 by the health insurer DAK confirmed addictive patterns of use among around 1.5 million children and young people aged 10 to 17 in Germany. That is roughly one child in four in that age group.

Under the German plans, a combination of parental responsibility, obligations placed on the platforms themselves and stronger media literacy would be used to bring about more responsible use of digital media.

What the EU Kids Act would require

The EU Kids Act sets out a staged model under which children and young people would be introduced to responsible media use age-appropriately, through a mixture of outright bans, platform-side contact and usage-time restrictions, and parental control.

Under the draft, children under 13 would be completely excluded from social media. Age verification would take place when accounts are set up, would be mandatory and would use the EU age verification tool. The access restriction would apply not only to social media but also to online games, AI chatbots and app stores.

Teenagers between 13 and 15 would be allowed one hour of access to social media each day, and only through mini-accounts set up and supervised by their parents. Only from the age of 15 would they be permitted to create their own fully usable accounts.

The catalogue of binding requirements in the proposal covers the child-friendly design of social networks, video platforms, online games, app marketplaces and AI chatbots. It is a comprehensive proposal for online youth media protection, intended to be implemented mandatorily across Europe.

Design duties placed on the platforms

The regulation would impose detailed design obligations on every service it covers. Safety by design is provided for as a legal baseline requirement for all users, including those without an account of their own. That default setting would apply until age verification established that a user is an adult. In practice, within the scope of the EU Kids Act, all users would be treated as minors unless the opposite is proven.

Addiction-promoting design would be prohibited. Examples given in the proposal include automatic playback without interruptions, incentives for livestreaming and streak mechanics. The draft also provides for effective measures to limit usage time, reporting mechanisms with prioritised handling of reports from minors, parental controls and a range of further adjustments, particularly concerning access and location-finding functions.

The parental control duties have drawn commentary from media researchers. Dr Stephan Dreyer of the Leibniz Institute for Media Research, who has published a summary and assessment of the draft regulation, has pointed to the design powers the draft gives to parents, which provide for monitoring of content, approval of contacts and interruption of access at any time. He has also noted that guardians must verify themselves as such before they can set up a mini-account for a 13 to 15 year old, which could exclude many young people from using the platforms at all.

What the German expert commission recommends

The German commission of 18 experts, whose report Prien presented in Berlin, recommends that young people under 13 should have no access to social media at all, while those aged 13 to 18 should be gradually introduced to the use of digital services through a staged protection concept and the building of media literacy.

The commission's recommendations go well beyond age limits, which take up little space in the 117-page document. The panel calls for the digital world to be adapted to the needs and protection of children and young people. Among its 56 recommendations in total are stricter EU requirements under the Digital Services Act, under which services would be obliged to adopt safe and age-appropriate default settings to contain the risk of addiction. Feeds would no longer be controlled algorithmically and content would no longer be personalised.

For schools, the commission recommends a nationwide mobile phone ban in all schools, to apply up to Year 7. Day nurseries and schools are placed under an obligation alongside the EU, the platforms and parents, and are expected to work with families on awareness-raising and media education. Media education should take place within general studies lessons at primary school, according to the experts, while in secondary schools peer-to-peer programmes could be used. Parents and school social work services would also need to be involved in these offerings.

One notable proposal concerns younger children. Parents would be permitted to give children access to social media even before their 13th birthday, where this is compatible with the child's welfare and with the rights and duties of parents set out in Article 6 of the Basic Law (Grundgesetz), Germany's constitution. Children are also to be introduced to the possibilities and dangers of artificial intelligence through a certificate called the KI-Seepferdchen, the AI seahorse, modelled on the swimming badges German children traditionally earn.

Where each process stands

Neither timetable is settled. The European Commission has so far only presented the draft regulation. Its consultation phase runs until 26 November 2026, after which the European Parliament and the Council of the EU must negotiate and adopt the draft in the ordinary legislative procedure. Children, parents, guardians, teachers and educational professionals are currently being asked to give their views on the draft, and the Commission has made the text and feedback channels available through its representation in Germany.

The path for the German report is also unclear. The expert commission's recommendations are just that, recommendations, and how the government will turn them into law has not yet been set out. Prien has announced further information for the middle of October, and the question of when a German regulation could enter into force remains open.

Background: the law the commission wants tightened

The Digital Services Act is an EU law that sets rules for online services such as social media networks, online marketplaces and app stores. Its aim is to protect people's rights online across the EU, according to the European Commission. The German expert commission is calling for stricter requirements to be written into that existing framework, so that services must offer safe and age-appropriate defaults and move away from algorithmically steered feeds and personalised content for children.

The commission noted that the platforms were largely unregulated at first, with only self-imposed rules coming later, and that its recommendations are intended to move regulation to binding European requirements.

For now, families in Germany face a period of overlap: an Australian ban already in force, a European proposal in consultation until late November, and a German set of measures expected within days. What form the national rules will finally take, and how quickly they can be brought in ahead of the EU Kids Act, is expected to become clearer when the education minister sets out her plans.

For readers asking what this means for them, our guides cover the court cases we report, the case against the platforms, guidance for parents and the latest developments.