Brussels Plans a Social Media Ban for Under-13s, and the Smallest Region Watches

The European Union will ban social media for children under 13 and permit only limited, supervised access until the age of 15 under plans unveiled by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, according to The Local Italy. The same package, the outlet reports, would impose age limits for games and AI assistants and would oblige companies to make their platforms safe before minors use them.

The framing von der Leyen gave the proposal, as quoted by the outlet, was that Europe has the power to act. That is a statement about competence as much as about child welfare: the measure is being presented as a bloc-level answer to a problem that member states have each tried to address separately, with uneven results.

The wire does not yet describe the enforcement machinery in detail, and the plan is a proposal rather than law. The Local Italy reports the announcement as the Commission laid it out, without specifying the timetable for the Parliament and Council or the penalties that would attach to non-compliance.