The European Commission is preparing a sweeping legislative proposal under the working title EU KIDS Act, which is set to fundamentally restructure the rules governing minors' access to digital services. The document aims to significantly restrict the use of social networks, video platforms, online games, and artificial-intelligence chatbots by children and teenagers under the age of 15. The initiative is being considered a logical continuation of the EU's existing digital architecture: as envisioned by its authors, the control mechanisms will be modelled on the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the AI Act, allowing child protection to be embedded within a single supervisory system rather than fragmented national rules.
Three-Tier Age-Based Access System
The key innovation of the proposal is a three-tier model in which a user's rights depend directly on their age. For children under 13, accounts may be created exclusively by parents or legal guardians, who will have full control over the child's activity; access will be open only to services that meet the highest safety standards. Teenagers aged 13 to 15 will receive special "introductory" accounts with screen-time limits, a ban on contact with strangers, and mandatory parental controls. The full right to independently register and configure their own accounts will only be granted from the age of 15. Importantly, the new rules will not affect educational digital tools, which will remain outside the scope of the restrictions.
Age-Verification Technologies and Oversight
To comply with the law's requirements, platforms will be required to integrate reliable age-verification technologies. The proposal provides for a differentiated approach: services posing a high level of risk to minors will be subject to stricter requirements. The oversight architecture is divided by the scale of the players — the European Commission will take on monitoring of the largest technology companies, while control over smaller platforms will be transferred to national regulators. This approach mirrors the logic of the DSA, where "special obligations" are placed on the largest online services.
Funding of Oversight and the Document's Status
The funding of supervisory bodies, as envisaged by the European Commission, will be provided through special fees levied on the technology companies themselves, which should relieve the burden on state budgets and create a direct incentive for platforms to invest in safety. At present, the EU KIDS Act is at the preparation and alignment stage: it is a draft law that still has to go through the procedural stages in the EU institutions, so the final wording of the details — including the exact age thresholds and the list of mandatory control features — may be adjusted during negotiations.
