Ursula von der Leyen proposes new rules for children: no social media under 13 and no personal accounts under 15

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced in the European Parliament plenary that she will propose a Children’s Act, with gradually differentiated rules on minors’ access to social media platforms. The initiative is due to be presented on Thursday and is based on consultations with experts and young people, as well as an analysis of measures adopted in Australia and other countries.

Under the proposal, children under the age of 13 should not have access to social media, while personal accounts would be banned until the age of 15. Between the ages of 13 and 15, only mini-accounts created and supervised by parents would be allowed, with limited features and restrictions on time spent online.

For teenagers between 15 and 18, platforms should be required to introduce safe-by-design measures. Von der Leyen said that the responsibility for demonstrating the safety of services would lie with technology companies.

The European Commission also aims to limit features that can create addiction, recommendations for extreme content, and the non-consensual use of girls’ images in sexually explicit material generated with the help of artificial intelligence.