European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she is considering a bloc-wide policy that would set a minimum “start date” of age 13 for children to access social media without caregiver supervision. She described the plan in a statement issued Sunday and in comments to the Financial Times.
Von der Leyen framed the proposal as a floor rather than a full mandate, noting that decisions about when a child gets a first smartphone remain up to parents. But she argued there is now broad consensus that the EU needs a common threshold for social media access. Under her vision, teens would gain access gradually after turning 13, contingent on platforms demonstrating their services are age-appropriate and safe.
Pressure From Member States
The proposal follows mounting pressure from EU countries frustrated with the pace of regulation. France, Spain, and Greece have already moved to impose their own restrictions or are fast-tracking national legislation. Some governments have pushed for higher thresholds, seeking bans for users age 15 and under, so it remains unclear whether a 13-year age floor will satisfy critics who want tougher limits.
Von der Leyen cited data showing European children spend an average of four to six hours a day on screens, adding that at six hours daily, screen time accumulates to roughly twenty years of a person’s life. She said continuing to give technology companies unrestricted access to children risks compounding mental health harm, addiction, and related problems.
Calling Out Platform Design
She compared the expectation for social platforms to safety standards long required of automakers, saying society already demands seatbelts and airbags from car manufacturers and should expect equivalent protections from platform architects. She called for age-appropriate restrictions to be built into platform design, arguing that the window of childhood cannot be recovered once lost.
Most major platforms currently set a minimum user age around 12, but those limits are not backed by legal enforcement and are routinely bypassed. It is not yet clear how the Commission would verify age or enforce compliance if the proposal advances, or what mechanism platforms would use to prove their services are safe for teenagers before granting expanded access.