European Commission set to push social media restrictions, safety requirements into law

The European Commission proposed the EU KIDS Act, barring under-13s from social media, mandating safe-by-design rules, and fining violators up to 6% of global revenue.

The European Commission laid out a roadmap for the EU KIDS Act, which would block social media accounts for children under 13, set a bloc-wide minimum account age of 15, and restrict ages 13-15 to guardian-controlled mini accounts with one-hour daily screen time caps. Safe-by-design requirements ban addictive features, infinite scroll, profiling-based recommender feeds, and push notifications during sleeping hours, and require AI companions and chatbots to be off by default. Providers would need to deploy the EU age verification app, submit compliance plans to third-party audits, and face fines up to 6% of global annual sales and 90-day investigations. The proposal still requires approval from the European Parliament and member states, building on the Digital Services Act and AI Act.