European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Thursday set out a sweeping plan to protect children from online dangers, proposing to ban under-13s from social media and require online services to design safe children's accounts.
The move follows similar initiatives in Australia, Britain, China, India, Turkey and several EU countries, reflecting rising concern over the impact of Meta's Facebook and Instagram, TikTok, Google's YouTube and ChatGPT on children's mental health and safety. Australia's own difficulties enforcing its world-first ban on social media for under-16s suggest Europe could face a similarly uphill battle.
"Today, our children are engaging with some of the most sophisticated technology ever created, and it was not created with children's well-being and development in mind," von der Leyen told a press conference. She said the proposed EU Kids Act would "set clear boundaries in the digital world just as we do it on a daily basis in the real world."
What the proposal covers
Under the plan, which still needs to be negotiated with EU countries and the European Parliament before it can become law, accounts for children aged 13 to 15 would fall under parental control.
Social media and video-sharing services, online video games, and AI companions and chatbots aimed at users under 18 would face a set of dos and don'ts. These include a ban on addictive features, profiling-based recommender feeds, infinite scroll, reward mechanics and unsolicited contact from strangers. AI companions and chatbots would have to be switched off by default.
Online platforms would also be required to design algorithms that are safe for children and to provide easy-to-use parental controls and tools to block and mute other users.
Source: Reuters
