The European Parliament close to calling for a ban on social networks for under-16s

Brussels – The issue of protecting minors online and the possible imposition of a digital age at the EU level is coming to the fore in the European Parliament. The Brussels chamber could be the first—following up on the alarms launched by several member states—to request that the European Commission propose a ban on access to social media for children under 16. The driving force behind this is primarily the centrist “platform” led by the People’s Party (EPP) and the Socialists (S&D). 

The data held by MEPs are disturbing: 97 per cent of young people use the Internet daily, 78 per cent of 13 to 17 year olds say they check their devices at least every hour, 16 to 24 year olds spend an average of more than seven hours a day on the Internet, 84 per cent of 11 to 14 year olds play video games regularly. And one in four young people “show problematic or dysfunctional use” of smartphones. 

The European Parliament’s Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) took this snapshot as a starting point for drafting a non-legislative resolution prepared by socialist Christel Schaldemose, which was approved on 4 November by a large majority. Next week, the text calling for “the establishment of a harmonised European digital age limit of 16 years as the default threshold below which access to online social media platforms should not be allowed, unless parents or guardians have authorised their children to do so” will go to the plenary session. 

Not only that, the text approved in IMCO calls for “the same age limit to apply to video-sharing platforms and artificial intelligence assistants that present risks to minors” and above all “a harmonised European digital age limit of 13 years, below which no minors can access social media platforms.” The European Commission has been working for some time on tighter measures to protect minors from the risks of addiction, abuse, and exposure to harmful content online. The Digital Services Act,  in force since 2024, obliges large platforms to assess the risks to youngsters and put in place effective tools to prevent them. In July, Brussels  launched a pilot project in five member states (including Italy) to test an online age verification application that would allow platforms to receive only proof that the user is or is not of age, without having to ask for personal data. 

What is more, in the pipeline is the European Digital Identity Wallet, with which “you will be able to keep full control of your data, but authenticate and verify your age when using certain services.” But so far, the European Commission has always rejected the possibility of imposing a digital age at the EU level. As stipulated by the Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), “it is up to the member states to establish and set the digital age between 13 and 16 years,” spokesman Thomas Regnier had explained a few months ago, responding to French President Emmanuel Macron’s requests. 

The first issue is inevitably that of privacy protection: “Any age verification tool used should guarantee the highest level of accuracy and reliability and meet strict data protection and cybersecurity criteria to ensure its compliance with our fundamental rights,” the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group emphasised in a
press release ahead of the vote. 

In addition to the Socialists, the EPP is also pushing for “social media access for children under the age of 16 to be allowed only with parental consent,” the group’s spokesman Daniel Köster confirmed today. The Renew Liberals and Greens are also expected to be on board. From the right-wing benches, the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR)—who had opposed the resolution in the IMCO committee—warned of the risk that the goal of stronger safeguards for children “would become a pretext to turn the Internet into a space of constant identification and surveillance.” The Conservative group’s line is that “parents should remain in charge”: spokesman Michael Strauss stated that “the Commission should strengthen parental control tools rather than monitoring every user.” 

On parental control tools, the resolution under consideration by the EU Parliament is more sceptical: it claims that they “remain fragmented across different platforms and devices and are often difficult for parents to use effectively.” And that the latter “often lack the appropriate and effective knowledge, skills and tools to monitor and manage children’s online activities.”