The EU has picked 15, and built a supervised tier underneath it

The European Commission published the EU KIDS Act on 17 September 2026 and sent it to the European Parliament and the Council, six days after the Dutch and Spanish asked for exactly this. Three tiers: no account under 13; at 13 and 14 a parent-supervised account with parental tools always on, a daily limit of at most one hour and parental approval of contacts; from 15, an independent account.

The scope runs wider than social media, covering video-sharing services with proven risky features, AI chatbots, games and app stores. For every user under 18 the Commission's explainer bans design features by name: endless autoplay and infinite scrolling without real breaks, notifications unrelated to anything the child did, rewards for posting to mass audiences, and streak mechanics that penalise a child for not returning every day.

Age checks are the part with a mechanism attached. Self-declared age is explicitly not enough, every member state would have to offer at least one free way to prove age, and the technology must not identify, locate, track or profile anyone. Enforcement builds on the Digital Services Act: preliminary findings within 30 days, a final decision targeted within 90, and fines of up to 6% of worldwide annual turnover. "Our KIDS Act is reversing the burden of proof," Ursula von der Leyen said. "It is for platforms to show they are safe by design."

The checks are also where the objections land. Agustín Reyna, director of the European Consumer Organisation, told the IAPP that verification is no "silver bullet" and raises "serious privacy and data protection concerns". Daniel Friedlaender of CCIA Europe said collecting age information "would create an attractive target for cybercriminals". European Digital Rights has argued since November 2025 that it is "short-sighted, ineffective and dangerous".

Why this matters here. The UK picked 16 and Brussels has picked 15, so a 15-year-old in Dublin could open an account the same child in Manchester could not. The UK also has no middle tier, and left the overnight curfew optional for 16- and 17-year-olds, 84.6% of whom told Censuswide they would switch it off. The sharper difference is who supplies the age check. The UK ban rests on platforms' own age assurance, which Ofcom is investigating at TikTok, while the EU would put a free state-provided option behind it.