The European Commission will unveil a bill this week to limit access to social networks and AI assistants to children and adolescents, in order to protect them against the many associated risks.
The President of the European Executive Ursula von der Leyen will present this draft text on the protection of children online, the “EU Kids Act”, on Thursday in Strasbourg, the day after highly anticipated announcements on the subject in her back-to-school speech to the European Parliament.
Here is an overview of the measures envisaged, according to a document consulted by AFP and not denied by the European executive.
Gradual access according to age
The bill will first of all remind that parents must not expose children under 3 years old to screens and the internet, so as not to hinder their development, thus following the recommendations of doctors and scientists.
If the bill is approved by MEPs and member states, parents will be able to create accounts under strict parental control for their children aged 3 to 12, but only on services adapted to their age (“childfriendly”), and considered safe. A category which should in fact exclude the usual social networks.
Unlike Australia, which last year imposed a total ban on access to social networks for those under 16, the EU opens the door to highly limited access under parental control for 13-14 year olds.
Parents would have the possibility of opening “learning accounts” with “strictly limited” functions for their children from the age of 13 on social networks and video platforms such as TikTok. Social functions would, however, be reserved for a limited number of contacts, and with a capped daily screen time. And parents should be able to control and monitor their teenagers’ use of these accounts at any time, via a dedicated application.
From the age of 15, minors would be authorized to open accounts independently on social networks and video sharing platforms, without parental authorization.
This system is very similar to the new French bill aimed at banning social networks for those under 15, announced Monday by President Emmanuel Macron, which also provides for exemptions under parental supervision for adolescents from 13 years old.
Platforms to be safer
The EU already had a powerful law, the Digital Services Regulation (DSA), under which it is already trying to force large platforms to strengthen the protection of users, and in particular that of minors, under penalty of heavy fines. Investigations target in particular Instagram and Facebook (subsidiaries of the American group Meta), and even TikTok.
But with the “EU Kids Act”, she wants to go much further and force social networks to fundamentally change the way they operate, without having to launch lengthy procedures, in addition to age-related restrictions.
To be accessible to under 15s, while respecting these restrictions, the platforms will have to respect a whole series of rules aimed at making them safe by design:
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Removal of “addictive” features such as unlimited scrolling of content, “artificial” notifications and other “rewards” that encourage you to log in and stay online as long as possible.
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Strongly supervised algorithms to also limit addictive behavior.
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Stricter security and privacy settings, by default.
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Contacts with unknown users will be prohibited.
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Tools to easily report dangerous content and “effective” parental controls.
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Age verification for all new accounts.
To apply these restrictions, online platform operators will have to verify the age of users each time they create an account. They will need to rely on age verification technology developed by the EU or equivalent public systems, ensuring an “equivalent level” of reliability and data protection.
Important detail: users of existing accounts will not have to systematically prove their age. For example, if you created an account years ago or linked a credit card to it, this won’t be necessary. Specific provisions are made for online games with age verification when downloading.
