EU PANEL WANTS SOCIAL MEDIA BANNED FOR KIDS UNDER 13 UNLESS SUPERVISED

The European Union is taking its most aggressive swing yet at children's social media use. A panel of experts appointed by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen today handed in a report recommending sweeping new age restrictions that would keep kids under 13 off social platforms entirely unless a parent or teacher is supervising them. For children under 3, the recommendation is no screens at all.

Von der Leyen is expected to turn the report into a formal law proposal in September, after the summer break. She has already signalled support for the approach. "We need age-appropriate restrictions on platforms," she said, and framed the effort as a question of time and identity: "Our children need time in the real world. Time to play, time to build friendships, time to make mistakes. Time to shape their own identity, their own personality, before an algorithm shapes them instead."

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The report, authored by child psychiatrist Jörg Fegert and epidemiologist Maria Melchior, arrives as European children are spending four to six hours a day on social media. Close to 60 per cent of them report emotional or psychological struggles tied to that time online, according to the panel's findings.

THE THREE-TIER BAN

The proposed framework is not a blanket ban. It uses a phased access model tailored to developmental stages:

- Under 3: no screens at all. - Under 13: social media access is banned unless a parent or teacher is actively supervising the session. - Ages 13 to 18: access is permitted, but only on platforms that build in guardrails against compulsive use. The report specifically calls for limits on infinite scrolling, giving feeds a natural stopping point rather than letting algorithms pull teens back into endless loops.

The panel also recommended that social media platforms should have to prove their services are safe for younger users before they are allowed to serve them at all. That is a significant departure from the current regulatory posture, which typically requires regulators to prove harm after the fact. Von der Leyen said she supports the approach.

THE ENFORCEMENT QUESTION

Even if the EU passes a law, keeping kids off social media will be difficult. Age checks are easy to fake, and enforcement has tripped up every jurisdiction that has tried. Australia's under-16 ban, often cited as the model other countries are chasing, has struggled with the same problem. Most restricted teens found workarounds within months.

The EU's advantage is scale and leverage. With 27 member countries and a regulatory apparatus that already enforces the Digital Services Act, the bloc has more tools than most to pressure platforms. But the fundamental technical problem remains: how do you verify a user's age without collecting invasive biometric data or creating a centralised identity system that itself becomes a privacy risk?

BEYOND THE BAN

The EU is not relying solely on new legislation. Regulators are also putting pressure on companies to change what they call the " offer " of their platforms. A preliminary investigation under the Digital Services Act already found Meta to be in breach of its rules over the design of Facebook and Instagram last week. A similar finding was issued against TikTok earlier this year.

That regulatory track runs parallel to the age-limit proposal. Whether redesigning platforms to be less compulsive has more tangible benefits than a straight-up ban is still in question. But the two approaches together signal that the EU is not willing to wait for voluntary improvements from the companies whose business models depend on keeping young users engaged.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

The formal proposal from von der Leyen is expected in September. After that, any legislation would need approval from the European Parliament and the EU's 27 member countries before becoming law across the bloc. That process can take months or years, and the final shape of the law could look very different from the panel's recommendations.

Still, the momentum is real. More than 20 countries are now weighing or enforcing their own age limits on social media. Even in the US, where no federal ban exists yet, public support for one is building. The EU's move adds significant weight to a global shift that is increasingly treating children's social media use as a public health issue rather than a parenting preference.

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The question is no longer whether governments will act. It is whether they can act effectively enough to outpace the workarounds. "This is not about whether children can access social media. It is about when social media can access our children," Von der Leyen said. The next few years will test whether that is a philosophical position or a regulatory reality.