Phoenix 24
A leaked proposal would shift responsibility from families to technology companies.
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
The European Commission is preparing legislation that could prevent children under 15 from independently accessing social networks, artificial-intelligence chatbots, video-sharing platforms and certain online games. The proposal appears in a leaked draft of the EU Kids Act and has not yet been formally adopted.
The preliminary model establishes different levels of access according to age. Very young children would be limited to specially designed services, while those between 13 and 14 could use restricted accounts under parental supervision. From age 15, adolescents would be permitted to manage their own accounts.
Technology companies would be required to verify users’ ages, provide parental controls and establish mechanisms for reporting harmful content. The draft also targets design features intended to prolong engagement, including infinite scrolling, persistent notifications and recommendation systems that repeatedly expose minors to emotionally intense material.
Supporters argue that voluntary protections have failed because children can easily provide false birth dates when opening accounts. They also maintain that platforms should bear greater responsibility for products engineered to capture attention during sensitive stages of psychological and cognitive development.
Age verification nevertheless creates a privacy dilemma. A system capable of confirming that a user is a child could also collect identity documents, biometric information or behavioural data. European regulators would therefore need to ensure that platforms verify eligibility without creating new mechanisms for surveillance, profiling or tracking.
The proposal must still be presented by the Commission and negotiated with the European Parliament and member states. Its final provisions may change substantially. The central debate is no longer whether digital platforms influence childhood, but how Europe can protect minors without excluding them from education, communication and legitimate participation in public life.
Protecting childhood should not require surrendering privacy.