Von der Leyen signals possible EU proposal on minimum age for social media access

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has indicated that the EU could move toward introducing a minimum age framework for access to social media platforms.

Speaking at the European Summit on Artificial Intelligence and Children in Copenhagen, von der Leyen said the Commission is considering a social media delay for children and adolescents. She stated that a legislative proposal could be presented later this year, depending on recommendations from the Commission’s expert panel on child safety online.

The speech places responsibility directly on platform design and business models. Von der Leyen argued that many online services are intentionally structured to maximise children’s attention and engagement through features such as autoplay, endless scrolling, notifications, and behavioural targeting.

She linked these practices to broader concerns around mental health, including anxiety, depression, self-harm, cyberbullying, and addictive online behaviour among minors. The Commission President also referred to AI-generated sexualised imagery and harmful recommendation systems as emerging risks intensified by generative AI technologies.

The speech connects these concerns to ongoing enforcement under the Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act. Von der Leyen referenced EU proceedings involving TikTok, Meta Platforms, and X, including investigations into addictive design, age verification failures, and AI-generated child sexual abuse material.

A notable part of the proposal concerns age verification infrastructure. Von der Leyen announced that the EU’s age verification application, designed to integrate with European digital identity wallets, is expected to become available in some member states this summer. According to the Commission, the system is intended to function across platforms while maintaining high privacy standards.

The speech also signals a broader regulatory direction. Later this year, the Commission plans to address addictive and harmful design practices through the forthcoming Digital Fairness Act. This would expand EU scrutiny beyond illegal content toward interface and engagement mechanisms themselves.

Rather than framing the issue only as parental responsibility or content moderation, the speech presents online child safety as a structural question of platform governance, product design, and commercial incentives in the digital economy.