EU Moves to Ban Social Media for Under-13s

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 on Wednesday by European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, according to The Local Italy. Announcing the proposal, von der Leyen said "Europe has power to act" — framing the measure as a bloc-wide response to concerns about minors online rather than a matter left to individual member states.

The proposal, as reported, sets a hard floor at 13 and a supervised band between 13 and 15, meaning platforms would need age-verification and parental or guardian oversight to keep older children online. It is a plan, not yet law: the Commission has put the measure forward, and the ordinary EU legislative process — Parliament and member states — would follow before any rule takes effect.

For Italy the question is practical as much as legal. Italian pupils already encounter phones and platforms inside school hours, and any bloc-wide age floor would require schools, families and platforms to agree on how age is checked and who supervises the 13-to-15 group. The wire does not yet set out the enforcement mechanism, the penalties, or the timetable.

The announcement places the EU alongside a growing list of jurisdictions that have moved to restrict minors' access to social platforms, though the reported plan is notable for setting a common European floor rather than leaving the age to national discretion. Von der Leyen pitched the measure in the language of capacity: the bloc, she said, has the power to act. What remains unspecified in the coverage is how platforms would verify age without collecting more data on children — the central technical and privacy problem such bans face.

Seen from Emilia-Romagna, the proposal touches two things the region watches closely. The first is schooling: the region's schools, like others in Italy, have spent years negotiating a workable line on classroom phone use, and a Brussels-set age limit would sit above whatever individual institutes have decided. The second is the region's technology and packaging-machinery base, which supplies digital and automation systems across Europe; compliance and age-assurance tools are a market the Commission's plan would create, though the wire carries no figure on its size and none should be assumed.

The measure also arrives in the same week the Commission has been active on mobility and border files — a reminder that Brussels is legislating across several fronts that reach Italian daily life at once. The Local Italy's report does not say when the social media plan would be debated or voted, nor whether member states have signalled support. Until those steps are reported, the plan is a proposal with a clear direction and an open route.

For families in Bologna and the wider plain, the practical questions the coverage leaves unanswered are the ones that will decide the measure's effect: what counts as supervised access, whether verification happens at the device or the platform, and what happens to the accounts of children who are already online. The Commission has said it intends to act; the wire has not yet said how.