Following a new report from experts showing worrying data, Europe is taking steps toward barring children from using social media, EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced in a press conference today. “It is clear we need age-appropriate restrictions to platforms,” von der Leyen said. “This is not about whether children can access social media. It is about whether and when social media can access our children.”
Authored by child psychologist Dr. Jörg M. Fegert and epidemiologist Dr. Maria Melchior, the report revealed some alarming statistics. Across Europe, kids now spend four to six hours per day on social media, and almost 60 percent of them had experienced “socio-emotional development and susceptibility to mental health issues… [resulting in] sleep and concentration problems, and increased rates of depression and anxiety.”
As a result, the study recommended that the EU restrict social media access for kids under 13 unless supervised by a parent or teacher. It also advised that teens between 13 and 18 only get access to platforms with safety features like limits on infinite scrolling. It further recommended that toddlers under three have no screen access at all.
Australia was the first country to bar children under 16 from social media, and multiple nations and territories including, France, Germany and Spain are looking into it. One US state, Florida, implemented a ban in 2024 on social media use for children under 14 without parental approval.
Critics of the ban in Australia have said that kids can easily sidestep it by simply lying about their age or using fake accounts. The government there recently announced that it will double the maximum penalty for social media companies breaking its minimum age law to 99 million $AUD, or around $68 million.
If Europe were to carry through with a new law, it would be the largest effort by far to ban social media use by children. The bloc is home to 450 million people of which 81 million or so are under the age of 18. However, creating such legislation would require negotiations and buy-in from all 27 nations in the bloc, something that could take a lot of time.
The report may represent a tipping point, though. “The more we learn, and the more we see the impact on our children, the stronger the argument becomes for a social media start date,” said von der Layen. The EU Commission will now review the report and recommendations and present a proposal “after the summer.”
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