EU Parliament: Social media for under 16s only with parental consent

The EU Parliament is calling for ambitious steps to better protect minors online. It is primarily advocating for an EU-wide minimum age of 16 for access to social media and video platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, or Facebook. With a clear majority of 483 votes to 92, with 86 abstentions, MEPs adopted a report on Wednesday expressing their serious concern about the dangers to the physical and mental health of children and adolescents in the digital space. The aim is to prevent manipulative and addictive online strategies that prevent children from engaging with content in a healthy and focused manner.

At the heart of the demands is an EU-wide ban on social media for under-16s, to enable parents to better control age-appropriate media consumption. For 13- to 16-year-olds, access should therefore only be possible with the explicit consent of their legal guardians. In addition, the people's representatives support the development of an EU app for age verification, for example within the framework of the EUDI Wallet for an online ID. At the same time, they emphasize that age verification systems must be reliable and protect the privacy of minors. They do not want to release the platforms from their responsibility for safe and age-appropriate products.

Furthermore, the Parliament is demanding stricter interventions in the product design of online services. This includes a ban on the most harmful addictive practices and the default deactivation of other addictive elements for minors, such as endless scrolling, auto-play, or rewards for continuous use. Manipulative designs (dark patterns) as well as recommendation systems based on profiling and tracking should also be prohibited for minors.

Against Loot Boxes and Kidfluencers

MEPs are also calling for action against influencing technologies such as targeted advertising and influencer marketing, as well as a ban on sites that do not comply with EU regulations. The scope of the Digital Services Act (DSA) should be extended to online video platforms.

The Parliament wants loot boxes and comparable functions with gambling characteristics in games to be banned. To prevent commercial exploitation, platforms should also not be allowed to offer financial incentives for children to influence other children, so-called kidfluencers. Regarding the enforcement of the regulations, the people's representatives propose making executives personally liable in cases of serious and persistent violations.

In addition, parliamentarians see an urgent need for action on ethical and legal issues arising from generative AI tools such as ChatGPT. They mention, for example, deepfakes and AI-powered nudity apps that can create non-consensual manipulated images. The Social Democratic rapporteur Christel Schaldemose underlined the importance of this clear demarcation: "We are telling the platforms unequivocally: Your services are not made for children. And this experiment ends here."

Concern about biometric surveillance

Criticism comes from Green MEP Alexandra Geese. While she considers child protection to be urgently necessary, she warns against establishing biometric surveillance systems under this pretext, for example through so-called age-assurance systems, where children have to transmit facial images or ID data to external service providers. The civil rights organization European Digital Rights (EDRi) also considers age verification to be a short-sighted and dangerous path that is disproportionate.

The background to the appeal are studies showing that 97 percent of young people are online daily and a quarter of minors use their smartphones in a "problematic" or "dysfunctional" way, exhibiting addictive behavior. First EU states like Denmark have already reacted and agreed on the introduction of a minimum age of 15 for certain social networks. In Germany, the debate is being conducted controversially: Federal Minister of Justice Stefanie Hubig (SPD) and Green Party leader Franziska Brantner advocate for an age requirement, while CSU leader Markus Söder rejects a ban.

(vbr)