EU plans Europe‑wide social media age limits, but can Brussels really police Big Tech?

17 Sep 2026, 14:37 by https://euobserver.com/author/gaia-neiman/ · EUobserver

From the ages of 13 until 15, guardian-supervised ‘mini’ accounts would be used with limited feature access and a daily use cap of one hour. The account would belong to the parent: they alone can set up the account, as well as approve friends the child can interact with on the platform (Source: Shixart1985)

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By Gaia Neiman,
Brussels
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The EU announced a long-awaited social media ban for teens on Thursday (17 September), expecting Big Tech to align its deliberately addictive designs to child safety measures.

But the issue, critics say, will be enforcing it.

The legislation unveiled by the commission during the Strasbourg plenary aims to ban social media for children under the age of 13, and gradually introduce it for older teens with tiered protections.

“Day and night, parents see the cost: loss of sleep, anxiety, even self-harm, and in a growing number of cases even fatal tragedies,” EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen warned in her annual state of the European Union address on Wednesday, re-affirming commitments outlined in the previous year’s speech to regulate social media use.

And until a child turns 18, online safety would be enforced through the removal of addictive features on social media, with the hope that a slow transition to independent digital literacy should be softened in a safer environment.

“An age limit does not mean letting tech companies off the hook for the content of the platform,” said von der Leyen in presenting the new law. “Now we are reversing the burden of proof. Now they have to prove to us that they are safe.”

Brussels’ ban professes itself on having learned from blanket prohibitions like the one in use in Australia, by focusing the onus of efforts of social media companies to improve their back-end safety design by removing personalised advertisements and content, addictive features, and the ability for strangers to reach out to minors.