Leak: EU Commission to pitch social media restrictions for under-15s

Key Points:

• The European Commission plans to introduce the EU Kids Act, which will restrict minors under 15 from creating social media accounts without parental consent and impose safety-by-design requirements on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, video games, and AI chatbots.
• The legislation, expected to be unveiled during Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the Union address, aims to harmonize child safety rules across the EU amid growing national social media bans in countries such as France, Germany, and Spain.
• The draft law sets graduated age restrictions, barring children under three entirely from high-risk services, allowing supervised access for ages 3-13, and restricted access with parental controls for ages 13-15, while requiring age verification for new and existing accounts.
• Safety-by-design mandates will ban harmful features like infinite scrolling and engagement-driven recommendations, require default privacy settings for minors, and promote easy reporting and parental control tools, with tailored rules for online games and AI companions.
• Enforcement will shift responsibility to tech companies to prove compliance, with stricter oversight for platforms under the Digital Services Act, including mandatory Commission approval for new child-related features and fees to fund supervision.