One hour a day, capped by design, set up by a parent. That’s the middle tier of a plan Ursula von der Leyen says was built after talking to young people — and after watching France’s under-15 ban collapse in court three weeks after it passed.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen unveiled the proposed EU Kids Act Wednesday, in her State of the Union address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg. “No social media under the age of 13. No personal account under the age of 15,” she told lawmakers. The plan introduces a tiered structure rather than a blanket ban: under-13s (U13s) blocked from social media, 13-to-15-year-olds restricted to parent-supervised “mini-accounts” with limited features, and 15-to-18-year-olds granted independent accounts on platforms required to meet “safe by design” standards. Von der Leyen framed the plan’s origins: “I convened a Special Panel of experts. We spoke to young people. We looked at Australia and others who have moved ahead. And it is time for Europe to act.”
What’s Happening & Why It Matters
Differing From France’s Failed Attempt
The tiered design is a deliberate departure from the approach TF has followed, which collapsed once this year. As evidenced in France’s Top Court Blocks U15 Social Media Ban, France’s blanket under-15 (U15) ban was struck down by its Constitutional Council just three weeks after Parliament approved it — ruled disproportionate and lacking adequate privacy safeguards around age verification. Von der Leyen’s plan avoids that specific structural weakness by building in graduated access rather than an outright prohibition for the 13-to-18 bracket.
The mini-account mechanism is the plan’s most concrete new detail. Teenagers aged 13 to 15 would get accounts created and supervised by a parent, capped at a proposed one-hour daily limit, with restricted features compared to a full account. That’s a different enforcement model than France attempted — restriction through design constraints and parental oversight, rather than restriction through outright prohibition backed by mandatory age verification alone.
The Problem: Age Verification at the Core
Despite the different structure, the plan still depends on the same technical challenge that sank France’s law. Companies, including Meta and Google, would have to verify users’ age when opening a new account, using either an EU-wide age-verification app or approved national solutions that confirm whether a user clears a specific age threshold—not their full identity. That “confirms age only, not identity” view answers the privacy objection France’s Constitutional Council raised, though whether it satisfies EU-level judicial scrutiny is untested.
Safety-by-design requirements apply even to the oldest bracket. Teenagers aged 15 to 18 could open independent accounts without parental consent, but platforms serving them still face mandatory design obligations — the same principle TF covered in EU AI Act Enforcement Begins to Take Hold, where transparency and design requirements applied across age groups rather than to the youngest, most restricted users.
Von der Leyen: “Depriving Children of Their Childhood”
The Commission president’s language went beyond typical regulatory structure. She told lawmakers social media apps are “depriving children of their childhood,” and that big tech must prove its products are safe — reversing the usual burden of proof, which has historically required regulators or plaintiffs to demonstrate harm rather than requiring platforms to demonstrate safety upfront. That shift echoes a legal strategy TF has tracked gaining traction throughout 2026, including in Meta’s $17 billion settlement, where courts treated platform design itself as what required justification.
The proposal doesn’t stop at social media. A leaked draft also covers safety-by-design rules for other risky online services, including AI chatbots and video games — extending the same framework well beyond the platforms most associated with this debate. Full details are expected Thursday from von der Leyen alongside Henna Virkkunen, the Commission’s executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, whose work TF has covered across the EU’s AI Act enforcement actions this year.
Following, Not Leading
The EU isn’t originating this policy approach—it’s formalising a practice already underway across member states. As TF has covered, Australia became the first country to ban social media for U16s in December 2025. France attempted, but failed, to pass its U15 ban. The European Parliament itself urged member states in November to set minimum access ages, citing rising adolescent mental health concerns tied to excessive exposure. This recommendation stopped short of binding EU-wide legislation until Wednesday’s proposal.
That patchwork history is why a unified EU framework matters structurally. Individual member states setting their age limits, verification requirements, and enforcement mechanisms creates genuine compliance complexity for platforms operating across all 27 countries. A single EU Kids Act, if it survives the legislative process member states must still approve, replaces that fragmentation with one common standard — though the France precedent stands as a direct warning about how a well-intentioned restriction can collapse under judicial review if the privacy and proportionality questions aren’t resolved upfront.
TF Summary: What’s Next
The EU Kids Act requires discussion and approval by EU member states before becoming operational, with no confirmed implementation timeline yet. Full technical detail is expected Thursday from von der Leyen and Virkkunen at a Brussels briefing. The specific one-hour daily mini-account limit is provisional, with informed sources suggesting the final text may adjust that figure. No confirmed date exists for when platforms would need to implement age-verification systems under the eventual law.
MY FORECAST: Expect the mini-account tier to face the sharpest legal and practical scrutiny once formal legislative text emerges, given how it requires platforms to build a new account category — not restrict existing ones — across 27 different national implementations. The age-verification requirement is the plan’s real vulnerability, and France’s Constitutional Council ruling gives privacy advocates a ready-made legal template to challenge any EU-wide mechanism that verifies age without protecting the personal data it collects. Watch whether Meta, Google, and TikTok — all already navigating the strictest DSA tier TF has covered — begin building EU-wide age-verification infrastructure, rather than waiting for final legislative approval, given how this proposal signals where Brussels intends to land regardless of the exact final numbers.
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