EU Chief Calls for Bloc-Wide Social Media Restrictions for Under-18s

The European Union’s top official has proposed a social media ban for children under 13 across the 27-nation bloc, along with limits on older teens’ access to the platforms.

The plan builds on global efforts to prevent online harms to young people by preventing or restricting their use of platforms such as Instagram and TikTok.

“I am aware that many perceive the power of Big Tech as overwhelming and impossible to roll back. I disagree,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in her annual State of the Union address delivered on Wednesday in the French city of Strasbourg.

‘Addictive Features’

“We do not have to accept addictive features. We do not have to accept children being drawn into ever more extreme content. We do not have to accept that girls have their photos used for AI-generated sexualized images,” she said.

Von der Leyen said that under her proposal, “mini accounts” chaperoned by parents would be granted to children ages 13 to 15. These would have limits on features and the length of time they could be accessed.

For 15-to-18-year-olds, social media companies will need to come up with a “safe design,” she said.

The proposed ban is not guaranteed to go through, and could take years to implement. The EU’s member nations will need to debate and then vote on the plan.

The attempt to impose blanket age restrictions on social media could cause tensions with Washington. U.S. President Donald Trump has opposed government-imposed age bans on platforms, arguing instead that parents should have greater control over their children’s online activity.

Trump has raised concerns about the effects of social media on children, while opposing broader forms of government control over online speech.

At the May 2025 signing of the Take It Down Act, First Lady Melania Trump described social media and artificial intelligence (AI) as “digital candy of the next generation” and said they could be addictive and affect children’s development. The law addressed online exploitation and nonconsensual intimate imagery and deepfakes.

‘Phased and Gradual’

Von der Leyen hinted at the EU plan earlier this year, saying children should be permitted to use social media in a “phased and gradual” way.

Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok already prohibit children under 13 from opening accounts, but authorities have accused the companies of failing to take sufficient action to ensure compliance.

Some experts said the social media industry’s core business model is based on getting users hooked on scrolling through endless, addictive content, while showing them ads, and that the EU is unwilling to tackle this.

The European Commission’s proposal “merely delays young people’s exposure to the risks of online harm instead of addressing the business model and extractive practices which fuel it,” said Simeon de Brouwer, a policy adviser at digital rights group EDRi, adding that the platforms will “unavoidably target them as soon as they’re a day older than the threshold.”

The commission’s proposal marks the first move to introduce a bloc-wide age limit for social media.

Not all attempts have been successful. France’s top court last month struck down a law banning under-15s from social media, saying it infringed on fundamental freedoms. French President Emmanuel Macron has vowed to rework the legislation to ensure it passes.

Privacy Concerns of Age Verification

Manfred Weber, head of the largest group in the European Parliament, the center-right European People’s Party, spoke after von der Leyen to propose that the EU should allow citizens to switch off social media algorithms, following Australia’s lead.

“Elon Musk will not like it, but probably that is a reason for doing it,” he said.

Von der Leyen said the commission would also discuss efforts to slow the development of advanced AI with leading companies, following recent debate over the potential risks the technology poses to humanity.

She said the EU would work with “like-minded partners,” including Canada and former member Britain, on the issue.

“We want to team up on model evaluation, verification, early warning, AI security and much more,” she said.

‘Confront Big Tech’

Brando Benifei, an Italian member of the European Parliament’s largest left bloc, the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, said he supported the plan and that Brussels should not back down from confronting the dominant U.S. tech companies.

“To apply this, you need to confront in a very frontal way the interests of platforms and Big Tech who are not happy with this,” he said.

The European ​Commission’s proposal is part of an EU Kids Act that von der Leyen ​and EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen were due to present on Thursday.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.