Leaked EU Kids Act Would Ban Social Media Under 15

The European Commission is preparing to propose sweeping age-based restrictions on children’s access to social media, video-sharing platforms, AI chatbots, and online games across the European Union. A leaked draft of the so-called “EU Kids Act,” first reported by VRT NWS, would introduce a tiered system in which children under 15 could not hold their own accounts on the covered services. The proposal has not been formally presented and details may change before and during negotiations with member states and the European Parliament.

A Tiered Age System

According to journalists who reviewed the provisional plans, the Commission envisions different rules for different age groups. Under the leaked draft, accounts for children under 13 would have to be created and fully controlled by parents, and would be limited to child-friendly services meeting stringent safety standards. Teens aged 13 to 14 could open “introductory” accounts only with parental assistance and under parental control, with contacts with strangers and usage time restricted. Only from age 15 would young people be able to create their own accounts — and even then only in an online environment that meets defined “safe by design” criteria.

The measures would extend beyond social media to video-sharing platforms, certain online games, and AI chatbots. Platforms that fail to comply could face fines of up to 6 percent of their annual global turnover, and digital service companies would be required to pay a supervisory fee to fund EU enforcement and oversight.

Von der Leyen’s Push

The leak comes ahead of a defining week in Brussels. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is expected to preview the Act’s main lines in her annual State of the Union address on Wednesday, 16 September, with the formal presentation scheduled for Thursday, 17 September alongside EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen — a sequence VRT NWS outlined in its preview of the address.

Von der Leyen has framed the effort as a child-safety imperative. Announcing the plan in July, she said, “Social media are not toys,” adding that “there is now broad agreement that there must be a minimum age from which children can access social media.” She also stressed the stakes of timing: “Research shows that the moment children start with it matters.” The Commission’s earlier announcement and the expert report behind it were reported in detail at the time by VRT NWS.

The Commission’s push follows an expert report by professors Jorg Fegert and Maria Melchior, which recommended a minimum age of 13, with social media and video games permitted for younger children only under supervision. The leaked draft goes further, setting the threshold at 15 — aligning with countries such as France, which reportedly supports that figure.

Enforcement and the Age-Verification Question

The central challenge is enforcement. The EU has developed its own age-verification application designed to confirm a user’s age without compromising privacy. The tool can be offered as a standalone app or embedded into existing services such as Belgium’s ItsMe, and rollout in France, Italy, and Spain was targeted for the end of 2026. Social media and video-sharing platforms would be required to verify age at new-account creation, while online games platforms would verify age before downloads.

Support and Skepticism at Home

The proposal has drawn a mixed reaction in Belgium, whose national and regional governments have moved ahead of Brussels. Earlier this year, Flanders set an age limit of 13 for “harmful social media” and plans a list of such platforms, from which services like TikTok and Snapchat would be expected to apply effective age checks.

Flemish Minister of Media Cieltje Van Achter, of the nationalist N-VA, welcomed the EU direction as “a clear confirmation of the course we have already set,” pairing a firm limit at 13 with a broader action plan that supports young people and parents while holding platforms responsible. “An age limit alone is not a miracle solution,” she cautioned. “Anyone who wants access to our young people must first prove that their platform is safe.”

Flemish Minister of Welfare Caroline Gennez, of the socialist Vooruit party, said she was glad “Europe is finally taking action,” arguing that parents and young people should not have to fight alone against platforms “deliberately designed to hold our attention as long as possible.”

Not everyone is convinced. Conner Rousseau, the leader of Vooruit and an enthusiastic backer of restrictions, made the case in blunt terms on VRT’s De Afspraak, invoking the comparison between children’s television of the past and today’s feeds. “15 or 16, that doesn’t matter much to me,” he said. “Better safe than sorry.” Comparing recommendation algorithms to gambling machines, he argued that “nobody would put their child in front of a gambling machine all day, but with social media we allow it” — and questioned whether enforcement should be left to the platforms themselves. “Do you trust Meta more than your own government?” he asked, urging age verification via ItsMe.

That view is contested by Mariek Vanden Abeele, professor of digital culture at Ghent University, who warned against an outright ban. “Young people have a right to information and freedom of expression,” she told De Afspraak, adding that policy “must be feasible, effective and proportionate.” Rather than excluding young people from a central part of their social lives, she suggested, regulators could rein in the companies that build addictive features in the first place: “Should we pursue policy that systematically focuses on excluding young people from an important part of their leisure activities, or can we rein in those companies in other ways?”

Unsettled Questions

Several key elements remain unresolved. The final age threshold is not fixed: the Commission’s expert panel recommended 13, the leaked draft uses 15, and some member states — including Estonia and Belgium — are reported to prefer regulation over outright bans. The precise scope of “online games” also varies across accounts, and the leaked text is not final.

The deeper tension is structural. Previous EU efforts under the Digital Services Act have already reprimanded TikTok and Meta, yet critics note that age limits place the burden on children and families rather than on platform design. Vanden Abeele’s warning about privacy — for minors and adults alike — adds another dimension to the verification debate.

What to Watch

Von der Leyen’s State of the Union address on Wednesday is the next signal, and the formal text on Thursday will reveal how closely it tracks the leak. From there, the Act enters the EU’s ordinary legislative procedure, requiring negotiation with member states and the European Parliament before it becomes binding law.

For now, the EU appears poised to go further than its own expert advisers and than several national governments, betting that a harmonized, verifiable age floor will protect young users. Whether that bet pays off — or simply pushes children onto less regulated corners of the internet — is the question Brussels has yet to answer.