The European Commission recently announced the EU KIDS ACT, which is intended to protect children online. This law includes age restrictions for social media that are to apply throughout the European Union. We, too, are concerned about the impact of social media on children (and adults!), but we do not see age restrictions as a solution.

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Von der Leyen's EU Kids Act

In her annual State of the European Union address, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen expressed concern about young Europeans whose attention, focus, and minds are being held hostage by social media. This leads to insomnia, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide. Enough is enough, and that is why Europe is now following Australia’s example with the EU KIDS ACT.

Under the proposal, each age group would receive a different level of protection: children up to age 13 would be subject to a complete ban on social media; from ages 13 to 15, young people could use “mini accounts” under parental supervision; and for those between 15 and 18, platforms would be required to be designed with safety in mind. Platforms must also prove that they are safe — a reversal of the burden of proof. She concludes this part of her speech by noting that adults are also at risk, which is why a broader framework is needed.

Age limits are not the right solution

We’ve discussed this before: we don’t believe that age limits are the right solution to the problems caused by social media. There are several aspects to this.

To implement an age limit, there must be a way to verify ages. Anyone above the age limit—in this case, everyone 15 and older—must provide proof of age. Generally speaking, the more reliable the verification, the greater the risk to privacy. We currently see no way to do this that is both effective and safeguards privacy.

In Australia, which von der Leyen cites as an example, platforms are responsible for verifying age. There, the platforms use AI to scan users’ faces to determine whether they are old enough to use the platform. This method is unreliable, especially for young people whose faces are constantly changing, and places data power in the hands of these Big Tech platforms.

A few months ago, the European Commission unveiled a blueprint for an app that is intended to serve as the foundation for this EU KIDS ACT. This app was hacked within two minutes and is not open source; as a result, it is impossible to know for certain what happens to your data.

Furthermore, the European Commission wants accounts belonging to children between the ages of 13 and 14 to be subject to parental supervision. Parents would therefore have to prove in some way that the child in question is their child. Enforcing an age limit in this manner is therefore incompatible with our fundamental right to privacy.

The fundamental right to freedom of expression is also under threat. After all, children—just like adults—have a right to it. When children are denied access to social media, the gatekeepers of our public debate, they are denied access to information and the opportunity to express their opinions. When the French Parliament proposed a similar plan for age restrictions last summer, the French Constitutional Council rejected it for precisely these reasons.

But there are other risks. Platforms must remain accessible to everyone (over the age of 15) so that they can access information, participate in public debate, and communicate. The method of age verification must therefore ensure that everyone can undergo it—including people without identification or registration with official authorities. They must not be excluded.

Furthermore, we see many other implementation issues. For example, how do you define “social media”? What exactly is being banned? Does that include all games and chat apps as well? Our research and the experience in Australia show that when one app is banned, young people simply turn to another one as a form of social media. And, of course, there are plenty of ways to get around such an age restriction: logging in with an older brother’s or sister’s account, to name just one. So children continue to be active on these toxic platforms, as we're also seeing in Australia.

Adults are missing the boat

All these proposed protective measures for children and young people are understandable, but the European Commission is overlooking a very important group: adults. Why are children given a higher level of protection? Adults are just as likely to suffer the consequences of dangerous social media. Even a 30-year-old can end up in a disinformation trap, an eating disorder trap, or the “manosphere,” to name just a few. The measures von der Leyen mentions for children between the ages of 15 and 18 — why don't they simply apply to all social media users?

The right solution

The EU KIDS ACT isn’t being implemented simply because there’s no better alternative. After all, von der Leyen even mentions the right solution in her speech: the Digital Fairness Act (DFA). Social media is dangerous for everyone, which is why we need to take action on social media platforms themselves and make them less dangerous and less addictive.

This can be achieved, on the one hand, by enforcing existing legislation more strictly (and believe it or not, that responsibility lies with the European Commission itself!) and, on the other hand, by introducing measures that structurally and permanently clean up social media. The rules von der Leyen is proposing for people between the ages of 15 and 18 could just as easily be proposed in the DFA for the entire platform. Why should platforms only be designed to be safe for minors, when we might as well make them safe for adults as well?

It is time for the European Commission to shift its focus from “protecting” children in a manner that violates the constitution to truly protecting all Europeans, without jeopardizing fundamental rights.