--- title: EU KIDS Act | daily.dev description: The European Commission has proposed the KIDS Act, a regulation introducing age-tiered access to social media, video-sharing platforms, online games, and AI... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/eu-kids-act-ifnyxyznm twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: EU KIDS Act | daily.dev og:description: The European Commission has proposed the KIDS Act, a regulation introducing age-tiered access to social media, video-sharing platforms, online games, and AI... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/eu-kids-act-ifnyxyznm og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/ifNyxyZNm.png og:image:alt: EU KIDS Act og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # EU KIDS Act **[Lobsters](https://daily.dev/sources/lobsters)** · 3 min read · 3 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary The European Commission has proposed the KIDS Act, a regulation introducing age-tiered access to social media, video-sharing platforms, online games, and AI companions for minors across the EU. Children under 13 cannot access social media; those 13-15 get a parent-managed mini account with a one-hour daily limit; from 15 they can manage their own account. The proposal mandates safety-by-design defaults (no infinite scroll tricks, private profiles, blocked stranger contact), mandatory age-check tools including an EU age verification app that avoids storing identity documents or biometrics, and shifts the burden of proof for safety onto large platforms. It now goes to the European Parliament and Council for negotiation before becoming law. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What age restrictions does the proposed EU KIDS Act place on social media use? Under the proposed EU KIDS Act, children under 13 cannot access social media at all, though they may use child-friendly video-sharing services via a parent-managed account. Those aged 13 to under 15 can use social media through a parent-managed mini account limited to one hour per day with restricted features. From age 15, minors can open and manage their own account independently. _Platform teams tracking age-gating and compliance requirements can follow regulatory developments like this on daily.dev._ ### What safety-by-design requirements would the EU KIDS Act impose on platforms used by minors? Platforms would need to limit addictive features like infinite scroll, reward mechanics, and push notifications during sleeping hours for minors, prohibit unsolicited contact from strangers, make minors' profiles private by default, and provide easy blocking and muting tools. AI chatbots and companions must be off by default and barred from fostering emotional dependency in children. Very large platforms must also prove their services are safe rather than regulators proving otherwise. _Developers designing products for younger users can keep up with evolving safety-by-design rules on daily.dev._ ### How would age verification work under the proposed EU KIDS Act? Online services and app stores would be required to use age-checking tools that protect user privacy, such as the EU age verification app, which does not retain identity documents or biometric data. Social media services and video-sharing platforms must verify age specifically when a new account is opened. The proposal still needs negotiation by the European Parliament and Council before becoming law. _Teams building compliant identity and age-verification flows can track this proposal's progress on daily.dev._ ## Community take How the wider developer community reacted, aggregated from 2 discussions and 21 comments across hackernews, lobsters (as of 2026-10-02). **TL;DR:** Discussion is largely skeptical, centering on age-verification privacy/efficacy concerns and worries the law is too broad, while some push back that online communities and social media can be vital for vulnerable or isolated kids. **Sentiment:** 5% positive · 25% mixed · 70% skeptical **The case for** - Some argue the EU age verification app could be genuinely privacy-preserving via cryptographic proof rather than sharing identity/age data directly. - Several commenters note social media and online forums were formative or even life-saving for them as kids (identity discovery, support communities, learning to code). - Safety-by-design defaults like blocking unsolicited contact or private-by-default profiles are seen as good ideas by some, though they'd prefer them universal rather than child-specific. **The pushback** - Many argue age-verification checks are either trivial to bypass or don't actually preserve privacy as claimed. - The proposal is criticized for not exempting small/micro services, which some feel is overly broad. - Terms like 'stranger', 'excessive use', and 'limiting' are seen as vague and hard to enforce or even define. - Some see the bill as part of a broader pattern of child-safety framing being used to justify privacy-invasive policy. **By community** - hackernews (skeptical): Commenters frame the act as a privacy-invasive mandatory age-verification scheme dressed up as child protection. - lobsters (mixed): Discussion splits between doubts about age-verification privacy/scope and personal anecdotes defending the value of youth access to online communities. **Hottest debate:** Whether the proposed EU age-verification app can truly protect privacy and identity, or whether such checks are inherently invasive or easily bypassed. **Open questions** - Will the age-verification app actually avoid leaking identity or usage data to platforms or ID providers as claimed? - How will platforms practically determine who counts as a 'stranger' or define 'excessive use' for enforcement purposes? - Will minors effectively lose access to public political discourse happening on social platforms? **Highlights** > > Online services and app stores will have to use tools to check users’ ages, while protecting their privacy. They can for example use the EU age verification app, which does not retain identity documents or biometric data. These checks are either trivial to bypass or they don't actually preserve privacy. > — [JulianSildenLanglo on lobsters · 4 points, 1 comments](https://lobste.rs/s/bbi3w9/eu_kids_act#c_klsrpm) > How do you know? I am not an expert on this, but I think the app works with the chip on the ID card to just verify that you are older than a specific age via some cryptographic proof without actually providing the name or age to the requester. Meanwhile also the ID card provider doesn‘t know for what you used it for. This of course assumes no backdoors. From what I‘ve heard it is pretty genius, but that‘s not what the big social media companies would like to have, because they want your real age and name. Edit: > The new age verification app is user-friendly and can be set up using a passport or ID card, enabling users to prove their age when accessing online services. The app is completely anonymous, works on any device, and is fully open source, meaning partner countries around the world can also adopt it. > — [JulianWgs on lobsters · 2 points](https://lobste.rs/s/bbi3w9/eu_kids_act#c_ntewo9) > Edited title from "EU KIDS Act: helping children navigate a safer online world", as the guidelines encourage removing moralizing. This is the long-expected EU legislature to formalize age verification requirements generally on the internet. In my opinion (as an EU citizen) it is too wide reaching, with no exceptions for small services. In fact, the proposal explicitly includes small services: > At the same time, small and micro enterprises are not exempted from this Regulation, since they may equally provide harms to minors. It would undermine the objective of this proposal to exclude them from scope. And only carves out exceptions for purely educational use and services operated by public authorities (naturally): > Exempted from scope because they are unlikely to pose harms to minors are not-for-profit online encyclopaedias, not-for-profit educational and scientific repositories, services and systems that are designed for purely educational purposes and operated within educational establishments or organisations, open-source software-developing and-sharing platforms, unless the platform itself constitutes an AI system in scope of this Regulation and Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, services and systems specifically developed and operated for the sole purpose of scientific research and development, and services and systems designed, developed and operated by public authorities and for exclusive use of said public authorities or on their behalf. > — [hackguy on lobsters · 4 points](https://lobste.rs/s/bbi3w9/eu_kids_act#c_uemuex) > Someone I know works with digital safety for children. When interviewing teenagers in vulnerable groups what they think of a social media ban for kids, some said outright that they would've attempted suicide had it not been for the support of online communities, and that online communities had been hugely important to them. Personally for me I used to lurk around in forums when I was ~10 y.o. That's how I learned to code. > — [mccd on lobsters · 1 points](https://lobste.rs/s/bbi3w9/eu_kids_act#c_7bmxyj) > Mandatory age verification everywhere, with varying level of privacy concerns. Tying your digital presence to identity, with service providers forced cooperation in this endeavor. And for the online gaming mandatory external age verification services, which will only permit existence of official servers and cost an arm and a leg. > — [BartShoot on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49922138) **Source threads** - [hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49920205) · 15 points · 13 comments - [lobsters](https://lobste.rs/s/bbi3w9/eu_kids_act) · 29 points · 8 comments ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Europe’s social media age shift](https://daily.dev/posts/europe-s-social-media-age-shift-gvcwnxux3) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Ursula Von der Leyen pushes EU-wide social-media age protections for children](https://daily.dev/posts/ursula-von-der-leyen-pushes-eu-wide-social-media-age-protections-for-children-ljd8o0ggn) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Denmark’s government aims to ban access to social media for children under 15](https://daily.dev/posts/denmark-s-government-aims-to-ban-access-to-social-media-for-children-under-15-5cusymuvn) · Hacker News · 4 upvotes · 3 comments - [UK social media ban will restrict some features on game platforms](https://daily.dev/posts/uk-social-media-ban-will-restrict-some-features-on-game-platforms-aykosur19) · Game Developer · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#social-media](https://daily.dev/tags/social-media), [#regulation](https://daily.dev/tags/regulation) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/eu-kids-act-ifnyxyznm) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"EU KIDS Act","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/eu-kids-act-ifnyxyznm","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/eu-kids-act-ifnyxyznm"},"datePublished":"2026-10-01T18:31:49.286Z","dateModified":"2026-10-02T07:35:32.396Z","description":"The European Commission has proposed the KIDS Act, a regulation introducing age-tiered access to social media, video-sharing platforms, online games, and AI...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/67f3ecc766d5581a3b0e507c374b5bad?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/67f3ecc766d5581a3b0e507c374b5bad?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Lobsters","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Lobsters","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--tl8v_Fku--/f_auto,t_logo/v1698841318/logos/lobste.jpg","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/lobsters"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/eu-kids-act-ifnyxyznm","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":3},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"social-media,regulation","timeRequired":"PT3M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Lobsters","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/lobsters"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"EU KIDS Act"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/eu-kids-act-ifnyxyznm#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What age restrictions does the proposed EU KIDS Act place on social media use?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Under the proposed EU KIDS Act, children under 13 cannot access social media at all, though they may use child-friendly video-sharing services via a parent-managed account. 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