Infinite scroll, night-time notifications, contact from strangers and feeds built from profiling, for every under-18, in every kind of app a child uses, from social media to games and AI chatbots. It would also keep children off social media until 15, and let 13- and 14-year-olds on only through an account a parent runs, capped at an hour a day.
It’s a proposal, not a law, made by the European Commission on 17 September 2026, and lawyers following it don’t expect it to apply before 2028.
But the list of features it would ban is the most useful checklist I’ve seen for any parent, wherever they live. Brussels has more or less written down everything parents have been grumbling about for years.
The features it would ban for under-18s. Across social media, video sites, online games, and AI companions and chatbots. If you’ve ever tried to get a child off a phone, you’ll recognise every one:
- infinite scroll with no stopping point
- push notifications during sleeping hours
- feeds built from profiling
- unsolicited contact from strangers
- reward tricks designed to keep a child going
- AI companions switched on by default, or simulating relationships in ways that build emotional dependency
Profiles would be private by default, with location, camera and microphone off. Which is how most of us assumed they were already.
The ages.
- Under 13: no social media. From 3, video services built for children, through an account a parent manages, for up to an hour a day.
- 13 and 14: a “mini account” a parent sets up and the child uses through the parent’s account, with limited contacts and up to an hour a day.
- 15 and over: an account of their own.
How age would be checked. New social media and video accounts would need age verification, for example through the EU’s own app, which the Commission says keeps no identity documents or biometric data. Existing accounts would get an estimate from signals such as when the account was opened. App stores would have to check age too, so the ten-year-old who was born in 1990 should find life a little harder.
Who has to prove it. The biggest platforms would have to show their services are safe by design, with an independent auditor checking. Until now it has been up to regulators to prove harm, so this flips it round.
When. The European Parliament and the 27 national governments still have to agree a final text, which is roughly as quick as 27 parents agreeing on a bedtime. The ages could move: in a non-binding vote in November 2025 the Parliament backed 16, not 15. The law firm Wilson Sonsini expects the rules won’t apply before 2028. I’d rather the argument was about the features than about 15 or 16, because the features reach every child under 18.
In the meantime, on 29 October 2026 the Commission froze for 12 months any national law that overlaps with it, starting with Austria’s plan to keep under-14s off TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. Greece’s under-15 law, adopted on 23 October, is due to start on 1 January 2027.
The final text, and the ages in it, are still being argued over. Subscribers hear what changes as it changes.
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What this means for you right now
You don’t have to wait for Brussels. This is what I’d do now.
Check your child’s apps against the list. Does the feed ever end? Does the app send notifications at night? Can strangers message your child? Is the profile public? Is an AI companion switched on? Most of those you can change in the app’s settings or the phone’s. Infinite scroll you can’t switch off. The phone, you can.
If you live in the EU, nothing changes yet. Each platform’s own minimum age, 13 on most, and your country’s existing rules apply until a final law takes effect.
Don’t plan around the mini account. It’s the part most likely to change before the text is final, because it puts a parent in charge of the account instead of banning it, and the Parliament has already voted for 16.
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Find out where every country stands on the social media and the appropriate age for children in the tracker.
Checked 2 November 2026.
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