EU KIDS Act would bar under-13s from social media. Accounts open fully at 15

The European Commission proposed the EU KIDS Act on 17 September 2026. The draft sets one minimum age across the bloc for opening an online account on your own: 15. It covers games, chatbots and app stores, not only social feeds.

Under-13s lose accounts, 13-year-olds get one hour a day

Children under 13 would not be allowed on social media. They could use child-friendly video services, but only through an account held by a parent or guardian. Teenagers aged 13 and 14 would get a mini account that a guardian manages. It comes with fewer features and a daily cap of one hour. From 15 a teenager could run the account alone.

Brussels bans infinite scroll, streaks and night notifications

The Commission also lists design features that covered services must drop. Infinite scroll goes. So do reward mechanics such as streaks. Push notifications would be switched off during sleeping hours. Profiles would be private by default and strangers could not start contact. Block and mute buttons become mandatory. Platforms would check age when an account is created, and an EU age-verification app is one of the tools on offer.

Platforms have already turned child safety into an advertising argument of their own, as they did when TikTok blocked Meta ads on the subject.

AI companions start switched off for every minor

AI chatbots and AI companions sit inside the draft as well. For minors they would be off by default. They must not push a child towards emotional dependency. National regulators have been working on children and commercial content for a while. Poland’s KRRiT went through two thousand ads featuring children before publishing its findings.

Shopping is the next open question. Mastercard has already put a number on how many people will let software buy for them, and its forecast covered teenagers too. An account a guardian controls changes who gives consent for a purchase like that.

Parliament and Council decide the final text

The proposal now goes to the European Parliament and the Council. Both can rewrite it before it becomes law. A legal analysis by Wilson Sonsini puts the maximum fine at 6 percent of worldwide annual turnover and expects the rules to apply no earlier than 2028.

So the date to write into a media plan is 2028, not next year. From then, if Parliament and Council keep the Commission’s shape, 13- and 14-year-olds would be reachable only inside an account a parent manages, for one hour a day.