Europe’s proposed Kids Act asks platforms to adapt to children’s ages
On 17 September, the European Commission published its proposed EU Kids Act. It would prohibit social-media accounts for under-13s, allow guardian-supervised limited accounts for 13- and 14-year-olds, and permit independent accounts from 15 in services subject to safer-design duties. It is a legislative proposal, not law in force.
What it could improve
The proposal combines gradual access with duties to change the services themselves. Its proposed safeguards address addictive design, recommender systems, privacy defaults, unwanted contact, livestreaming, AI chatbots, games and app stores. The Commission also proposes privacy-preserving age verification through independent solutions. Very large platforms would have to demonstrate compliance through plans and independent audits, rather than leaving children and families to prove harm.
What remains unresolved
The proposal goes considerably further than a simple age ban. Its real-world effectiveness will still depend on implementation, independent evidence and how protection works when a child moves beyond a covered account.
- The Commission proposes exemptions for services such as educational platforms, encyclopaedias and digital news. The boundaries of those exemptions and access to beneficial online communities will matter in practice.
- The proposal calls for certified, privacy-preserving age verification independent of platforms. Its deployment should be tested for accuracy, accessibility, data minimisation and whether checks remain genuinely unlinkable across services.
- A child may use a shared or inaccurate account, switch devices, visit a service while signed out, or move to a service outside the rules. An age label on one account does not solve these cases.
- Parent-supervised accounts can support younger teenagers, but should not make parents solely responsible for risks designed into a platform.
- Compliance plans and audits need to test actual outcomes, including contact, recommendation, privacy and wellbeing safeguards—not only stated policies or account settings.
- Restrictions need to respect young people’s participation, accessibility and growing autonomy, including the circumstances of children who rely on online communities for support.
The Child-Friendly Internet perspective
The proposal is unusually close to the Child-Friendly Internet principle that digital environments should adapt as children mature. Its independent, privacy-preserving age-verification approach is a substantial step toward reducing identity disclosure to platforms. A wider ecosystem could complement these service-level obligations by helping participating networks and services recognise an appropriate child-assurance signal across contexts, without building a cross-service identity trail. That would not replace platform duties, family support, education or independent regulation.
- Design safeguards around developmental needs and evolving autonomy rather than a single under-18 setting.
- Require services to prove that protective defaults and wellbeing measures work in practice.
- Explore interoperable, data-minimising assurance so appropriate safeguards can follow children across participating services, devices and network environments.
- Preserve beneficial digital opportunities and assess the unintended consequences of restrictions alongside their intended safety benefits.
The central question
Can Europe turn age-tiered platform rules into a coherent child-friendly experience without making children repeatedly disclose who they are?