The European Union outlined plans on Wednesday to restrict social media use for children under 15, an aggressive step to curtail access to apps like TikTok and Instagram across the 27-nation bloc.
The proposal, called the EU Kids Act, would bar children under the age of 13 from using social media, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, the bloc’s executive branch, said in a speech in Strasbourg, France. Teens aged 13 and 14 could access new “mini accounts” supervised by parents that would limit their contact with strangers and overall screen time. Access to a more independent account would be allowed from age 15.
“It is not about our minors accessing social media. It is about when and how do we allow social media to access minors,” said Ms. von der Leyen during an annual State of the Union address.
The act would be one of the biggest policy steps to date in a global movement to limit children’s screen time and access to social media. The European Union, home to 450 million people, has long been an aggressive regulator of the tech industry, using its power to force companies to change products and policies. In recent years, Apple changed its App Store, Google its search engine and Meta its data-privacy practices to comply with European laws and regulations.
The European Union is trying to balance regulating the tech industry while encouraging the development of artificial intelligence and other technologies that could drive economic growth. On Wednesday, Ms. von der Leyen raised concerns about the safety risks of A.I., but said the region must expand development or risk falling behind the United States and China.
“We need to stay in the race,” she said.
Ms. von der Leyen has made child safety online a priority amid growing concern among parents, mental health experts and policymakers. In the European Union, young people now spend four to six hours per day on screens, she said.
“Children are pulled ever deeper into feeds designed to keep them scrolling,” she said.
Australia last year became the first country in the world to bar children under 16 from social media. Since then, countries including France, Denmark and Malaysia have carried out or are considering similar rules.
In the United States, Meta last month agreed to pay up to $17.1 billion in penalties and to make major changes to its products as part of a landmark legal settlement over claims the addictive design of its products engaged children. The company, which owns Instagram and Facebook, said it would limit how long teenagers can spend on its platforms and limit features like infinite scroll.
The European Commission is expected to release full details of the social media rules on Thursday. The proposal will then wind its way through the E.U. lawmaking process, which requires agreement from member countries and the 720-member European Parliament.
One central question will be how to enforce the rules. In Australia, critics have said that teenagers are easily sidestepping the blocks and that the law has not fulfilled its promise.
Policymakers have explored the introduction of age verification technology that has raised concerns among privacy advocates.
“Children clearly need better protection online, but age verification is not a silver bullet and would raise serious privacy and data protection concerns of its own,” Agustín Reyna, director of the European consumer watchdog BEUC, said in a statement this week.