EU KIDS Act aims to protect children from online harm

Date: 28th September 2026
Category: Civil Rights and Freedoms

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On 17 September 2026, the European Commission announced a new proposal to “protect minors from risky digital services and AI systems, uphold the digital single market and maintain a coherent regulatory framework and enforcement structure for the protection of minors online.”

The proposed EU Keeping Internet Digital Spaces Accountable and Trustworthy Act, or the ‘EU KIDS’ Act, seeks to tackle the risks that minors face on certain online social networking services and video-sharing platforms.

If enacted, it would embed ‘safety by design’, requiring platforms to provide effective time limits and usage breaks while prohibiting contact from strangers and addictive design elements.

It would prevent children under the age of 13 from having social media accounts, allow 13-15-year-olds to have parent-supervised ‘mini’ accounts, and proposes a minimum age of 15 for autonomous account creation on specific platforms and systems. This minimum age would be applied universally across the EU to ensure a similar level of protection for all children, regardless of their country of residence.

Read a summary of the proposed legislation here