25 September 2026 — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen set out proposed restrictions on children’s social media use in a speech at a UN dialogue on children’s rights and artificial intelligence in New York on 22 September. Under the proposed EU Kids Act, she said, platforms would have to prove they are safe for children. If they could not, they would not be allowed access to young users.
Key points
- The proposed EU Kids Act would bar children under 13 from social media and those under 15 from holding personal accounts.
- Children from age 13 until they turn 15 could use parent-supervised mini accounts with limited features and a 60-minute daily limit that parents could reduce.
- Von der Leyen wants platforms to demonstrate child safety instead of requiring the Commission to establish harm through an investigation.
- The address accompanied the launch of a coalition on children’s rights and protection in the age of AI.
The EU Kids Act sets age-based limits
Von der Leyen described a staged approach to social media access. Children under 13 would be excluded. From 13 until their 15th birthday, they could have only mini accounts established and supervised by parents, with restricted features and a daily limit of 60 minutes. Parents could set a shorter limit. Personal accounts would become available from age 15 under the approach she outlined.
For users aged 15 to 18, platforms would be subject to mandatory safe-design requirements under the proposal, Cybernews reported. The account restrictions concern social media, although von der Leyen presented them at a dialogue devoted to children’s rights in the face of AI. In her speech, she focused on the algorithms that determine what children encounter and how long they stay on a platform.
The Commission president had said in her State of the Union address on 16 September that an EU Kids Act would follow the next day, EU Perspectives reported. Before presenting it, the Commission convened a panel for six months to consider what action to take and how to frame it, von der Leyen said. She identified civil society, parents’ organisations and young people among those involved.
Platforms would carry the burden under the Kids Act
The change von der Leyen emphasised most was who must make the safety case. Under the Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act, she said, the European Commission has to assess whether practices such as algorithms harm children. Her proposed reversal would require platforms to demonstrate that they are safe for children instead. She described loss of access to young users as the consequence if a platform failed to do so.
Von der Leyen argued that the current investigative process takes too long for children already using a service. An investigation can take months, followed by further months of discussion with a platform and changes to its practices, she said. In her account, three, four or five years can pass before a fine is imposed. The proposed duty would put the safety demonstration on the company rather than leave the Commission to build a case for harm first.
She pointed to Meta as a reason to act, characterising a settlement involving the company as an admission that it had not protected children sufficiently. Meta agreed to pay $16.7 billion to settle claims concerning children and also promised daily usage limits and nighttime blocks for teenage Facebook and Instagram users worldwide, Cybernews reported. An earlier AI Affairs report on a former Google safety chief joining Common Sense Media covered his warning that AI harms children more than social media.
Von der Leyen cites screens and a UN coalition
Von der Leyen cited a July Eurobarometer survey in which, she said, 92% of Europeans favoured doing more to protect children online. She also said young people in Europe spend an average of 4 to 6 hours a day on screens, while those who began before age 10 spend around 7 to 8 hours online. She argued that platforms seek to hold children’s attention and earn money from it.
The speech took place during the 81st UN General Assembly in New York. Von der Leyen delivered it at the launch of the Coalition for Children’s Rights and Protection in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, the EU’s delegation to the UN said. The delegation described the coalition as an effort to bring countries together on the protection of children.
