The European Union is considering new limits on how children and teenagers use social media, including age thresholds, a possible ban, and staged access based on age, according to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
The practical effect, if the European Commission turns the idea into law, would be a new gate between minors and large social platforms. Platforms could also face a burden they generally prefer to avoid: showing that their services do not harm young users before those users are allowed in.
Von der Leyen said the Commission may bring forward legislation within months, after it reviews recommendations from an expert panel released on July 13. She backed the idea of age-based restrictions, saying: “This is not about whether children can access social media. It is about when social media can access our children.”
What the expert panel recommended
The panel called for a phased model rather than one flat rule for all minors. Its recommendations include no screen use for children under 3, supervised internet access for children under 13, and limits for older teenagers.
That framework would treat social media access less like an on-off account signup and more like a sequence of permissions. Younger children would be kept away from screens or put under supervision, while older teens would still face constraints. The exact shape of those constraints has not yet been set out in legislation.
The panel also recommended making social media companies demonstrate that their products are safe for younger users. Von der Leyen said she supports that approach. For Meta, TikTok, and other large platforms, that would put regulatory attention on design choices such as feeds, notifications, autoplay, and other engagement machinery, the stuff companies tend to describe as personalization when regulators call it addictive.
A proposal is not yet law
Von der Leyen said the Commission will assess the panel’s report and return with proposals “after the summer.” A Commission proposal would still have to pass through the European Parliament and the EU’s 27 member countries before it could become binding across the bloc.
That process matters because the EU can move slowly, and member states do not always agree on how far Brussels should go in regulating online services. Still, a formal proposal from the Commission would put Europe into the same broader push already visible in countries including the UK and Australia, where governments have advanced proposals or active rules aimed at restricting children’s social media use.
The debate is already tied to the EU’s existing platform rulebook. Last week, an EU preliminary investigation found Meta in breach of the Digital Services Act over what regulators described as “addictive” design on Facebook and Instagram. Earlier this year, regulators issued a similar finding against TikTok.
Those findings are preliminary, but they show where European regulators are looking: not just at whether a child can create an account, but at what the service does once the account exists. The next fight is likely to be over proof. Platforms will say their systems are safe enough. Brussels is signaling that, for minors, the companies may have to show their work.
This story draws on original reporting from The Verge.
