BRUSSELS: European Union leaders are keen to press ahead with introducing a minimum age requirement for social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram on fears they may harm young people.
Among leaders' concerns are addictive mechanisms, for example, with TikTok giving highly personalised recommendations and the uninterrupted automatic playback of videos.
TikTok's design constantly "rewards” users with new content, thereby encouraging them to keep scrolling, says European research.
Such fears have led many governments around the world to weigh a move like in Australia, where a strict social media ban for everyone under the age of 16 was introduced in December.
Now, leaders in Europe have agreed that a digital minimum age for access to social media is important to protect minors.
Privacy and national competences must be respected, say conclusions adopted after an EU summit.
Member states called on the European Commission to implement the Digital Services Act (DSA) and its guidelines on protecting minors.
Efforts to technically enforce such age thresholds would inevitably involve the platforms themselves. However, setting and enforcing such rules falls exclusively under the remit of the European Commission.
Contrary to some proposals currently being discussed in Germany, individual member states would not be able to impose additional obligations on major platforms, such as age checks. Such measures would have to be decided at the EU level.
Decisions on whether and up to what age social media should be restricted for minors could remain within national competencies.
EU states also reaffirmed that artificial intelligence (AI) systems that allow the creation of non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material should be prohibited.
Elon Musk's social media platform X came under fire at the end of 2025 after users were initially able to prompt the AI chatbot Grok to sexualise posted images. Users instructed the AI to manipulate photos, for example to depict women in bikinis. – dpa
