The EU Kids Act would bar children under 15 from independently accessing AI chatbots, social networks, video-sharing services and online games under a sweeping draft plan reported on September 14. The proposal would replace today’s fragmented platform rules with age-based access requirements across the European Union.

 

The draft establishes four layers of access and oversight:

  • No covered digital services for children under three
  • Parent-controlled, child-friendly services for ages three to 12
  • Restricted introductory accounts for ages 13 and 14
  • Independent accounts from age 15

 

EU Kids Act Proposes a Four-Tier Access System

Reuters reported that the European Commission document covers social media, video-sharing platforms, AI chatbots and gaming services. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU technology chief Henna Virkkunen are expected to present the initiative on September 17.

 

Children aged 13 and 14 could use introductory social-media and video accounts only when a parent opens them. Those accounts would have limited contacts and strict time restrictions, while services for younger children would need to meet child-friendly safety standards and remain under parental control.

 

The plan would also impose obligations on companies rather than treating access limits as a family-only responsibility. Platforms would have to avoid addictive designs and harmful recommendation feeds, offer effective parental controls and make it easy for minors to report harmful content.

 

A supervisory fee paid by companies would fund enforcement. Social and video platforms would need to verify age when accounts are created, while gaming platforms would conduct checks before users download games.

 

EU Kids Act AI Chatbot Ban Extends Beyond Social Media

Including AI chatbots makes the proposal materially broader than a conventional social-media age limit. Conversational systems can provide persistent, personalized exchanges without the public audience or visible moderation signals associated with feeds, creating a separate category of child-safety and product-design risk.

 

The draft’s scope could capture general-purpose assistants such as ChatGPT alongside dedicated companion products, depending on definitions in the final legislation. Reuters named ChatGPT among the major services drawing policy attention, but the Commission has not yet released operative legal text or a definitive provider list.

 

A European Commission special-panel report published in September describes “social media+” as a wider group of services that may expose minors to addictive features, harmful content or risky interactions. Its examples include gaming, streaming and AI-enabled services rather than social networks alone.

 

The expert report is advisory and does not establish the Kids Act’s rules. It recommends placing the burden on providers to demonstrate safety by design and calls for restricted access for children under 13 until services meet that standard. The Commission draft reported by Reuters goes further with an EU-wide age-15 threshold and graduated access.

 

Age Verification Becomes the Enforcement Backbone

An age limit is enforceable only if services can distinguish children from adults without collecting excessive identity data. The Commission already has an EU age-verification blueprint designed to let users prove an age threshold while withholding unrelated personal information.

 

The system became feature-ready in April 2026 and can be adapted beyond its initial over-18 use case to thresholds such as 13 or 15. It is built for compatibility with European Digital Identity Wallets, which are scheduled to roll out across member states by the end of 2026.

 

Implementation remains a major practical challenge. Member states must designate trusted proof-of-age providers, platforms must integrate compatible checks, and regulators must prevent companies from falling back on intrusive document collection or unreliable self-declaration.

 

The Digital Services Act already requires platforms accessible to minors to protect their privacy, security and mental and physical well-being. Commission guidelines address private-by-default accounts, recommendation controls, cyberbullying tools and addictive design, giving regulators an existing framework that a Kids Act could extend with binding age tiers.

 

The Kids Act Still Faces Months of Negotiation

The reported document is a proposal, not a law, and its details may change before presentation. After the Commission publishes formal text, EU governments and the European Parliament would negotiate the age thresholds, covered services, enforcement powers, privacy safeguards and obligations for parents and providers.

 

That process will expose difficult trade-offs. A uniform rule could reduce regulatory fragmentation across 27 member states, but policymakers must decide how educational chatbots, school accounts, family devices and cross-border services fit within a system designed around individual age verification.

 

Providers will also scrutinize whether a supervisory fee and product-design mandates duplicate existing Digital Services Act obligations. Child-safety advocates, meanwhile, are likely to press for strong default protections and auditing standards that do not depend on parents discovering risky settings after an account is active.

 

The Commission’s formal proposal will determine whether AI chatbots receive distinct rules or remain within a common category of digital services. Until then, the draft establishes the direction clearly: access controls, safety-by-design duties and regulator-funded supervision are moving toward one EU-wide system.

 

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