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The European Commission’s proposed EU Kids Act would impose age-based access controls and child-safety duties on social media, video-sharing platforms, games, AI companions, chatbots, and app stores. Covered social-media and video-sharing services would be barred from offering accounts to children under 13; users aged 13–15 would require closely parent-supervised accounts, while users aged 15–18 would receive more autonomous accounts designed with safety protections by default. The proposal also targets addictive design features, harmful interactions, and emotional dependency risks.
Critics warn that broad age-verification and age-gating mandates can require platforms to collect or validate sensitive identity data, creating privacy, security, and free-expression risks while limiting access to lawful information. They also argue that compliance costs could disproportionately affect smaller providers and consolidate the position of dominant technology firms. The Electronic Frontier Foundation identifies age verification as a wider digital-rights concern, and opposition to the EU proposal has focused on whether its restrictions are necessary, proportionate, and adequately supported by an impact assessment.
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The European Commission presented a draft EU Kids Act proposing age-based access rules and child-safety-by-design requirements for covered online services, including social media, video-sharing platforms, games, AI companions, chatbots, and app stores.
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The European Commission is reportedly preparing an **EU Kids Act** that would curb unsupervised access by children under 15 to social-media and video-sharing platforms, AI chatbots or companion services, and online games. The draft would require age verification during account creation and before online-game downloads, restrict addictive design patterns and harmful recommendation feeds, and extend obligations to app stores; noncompliant organizations could face fines of up to 6% of worldwide annual revenue. The proposal reportedly includes stricter protections for under-13s and limited service functionality for users below 15, with an age-verification “Mini-Wallet” envisioned to validate age using identity documents and facial-biometric comparison before sharing an age signal with services. Critics warn that identity-based checks could burden parents, expose sensitive identity and custody data, weaken anonymity and access to information, and create surveillance-enabling infrastructure. The measure remains a draft and must be approved by EU member states and the European Parliament, leaving its final thresholds, enforcement approach, and implementation date unresolved.
Sep 19, 2026
UK regulators **Ofcom** and the **Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)** issued warnings to major social media and video platforms (including **Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube**) demanding “urgent steps” to implement more robust **age assurance** controls to prevent access by children under 13. Regulators signaled potential enforcement if platforms continue relying primarily on easily bypassed self-declared ages, arguing this enables unlawful collection and use of children’s data and exposes under-13s to services not designed for them; Ofcom requested companies report back on their plans by the end of April. In the US, the House Energy and Commerce Committee advanced the **Kids Internet and Digital Safety (KIDS) Act** on a party-line vote amid Democratic objections that the bill could reduce platform accountability for harms to minors. Criticisms focused on provisions that could **preempt certain state laws**, a **knowledge requirement** that opponents argue may let companies claim ignorance of minors’ presence, and the lack of a proactive **“duty of care”** requirement; proposed amendments to strengthen protections were not adopted.
Jun 29, 2026
Policymakers in multiple jurisdictions are advancing **child online safety** rules that would restrict minors’ access to social media, “addictive” product features, and certain content (including pornography), increasing pressure on platforms to implement **age assurance/age verification** to determine users’ ages before allowing access. The Lawfare analysis highlights that while protecting children online is a widely shared goal, enforcing age-based restrictions at scale effectively requires collecting and validating age signals for *all* users—raising significant implementation, privacy, and governance challenges as governments consider measures such as the **Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA)**, the **Kids Off Social Media Act**, and the **App Store Accountability Act**.
Jun 30, 2026