The European Parliament (EP) requires a minimum age of 16 for access to social networks, with the aim of protecting minors from the online environment. According to a report, 97% of young people use the Internet daily.
PHOTO: Pixabay
According to a statement sent by the European institution, the deputies adopted on Tuesday, November 25, a non-legislative report with 483 votes for, 92 against and 86 abstentions, “expressing deep concern about the physical and mental health risks faced by minors online.”
So they call for better protection against manipulative strategies that can increase addiction and that impair minors' ability to focus and interact judiciously with online content.
Parliament has proposed a European-wide age limit of 16 to access social media platforms, video sharing services and AI platforms.
Minors between 13 and 16 may have access with parental consent.
MEPs welcome efforts by the European Commission (EC) to develop an age verification app and EU digital identity (eID) wallet, and insisted that age verification mechanisms must be accurate and protect the privacy of minors.
According to MEPs, these systems cannot remove the responsibility of platforms to ensure that their products are safe and age-appropriate from the moment of conception.
To encourage compliance with the EU Digital Services Regulation and other applicable legislation, MEPs suggest that senior management could be held personally liable in cases of serious and persistent non-compliance, particularly when it comes to the protection of minors and age verification.
What a soliloquy, deputies
During the debate, Danish rapporteur Christel Schaldemose (Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats), said:
“I am proud of this Parliament that we can stand together to protect minors online. Together with strong and consistent enforcement of the Digital Services Act, these measures will dramatically increase the level of protection for children. We are finally setting some limits. We are making it clear to platforms: your services are not designed for children. And the experiment ends here.”
Parliament also requests:
- ban the most harmful addictive practices and disable by default other addictive design features for minors (such as “endless scrolling”, “autoplay”, “swipe to reload”, rewards and incentives for continued use and harmful gamification practices);
- to ban websites that do not comply with EU rules;
- to take action against persuasive technologies such as targeted advertising, influencer marketing, addictive design and dark patterns in the upcoming Digital Fairness Act;
- to ban referral systems for minors that are based on how to interact;
- to apply the rules of the Digital Services Regulation to online video platforms as well and to prohibit “loot boxes” and other in-game content (including in-app coins, lucky wheels or pay-to-advance mechanisms);
- to protect minors from commercial exploitation, including by prohibiting platforms from offering financial incentives to child influencers;
- take urgent action to address the ethical and legal challenges posed by tools using generative artificial intelligence, including deepfakes, pet chatbots, AI agents and AI-based nudity apps (which generate manipulated images of people without their consent).
One in four minors fall into “problematic” use of phones
The EP report refers to research showing that 97% of young people use the internet daily, and 78% of 13-17 year olds check their devices at least once an hour.
At the same time, one in four minors fall into “problematic” or “dysfunctional” use of smartphones, adopting behavioral patterns that resemble addiction.
According to the 2025 Eurobarometer survey, more than 90% of Europeans believe that urgent measures are needed to protect minors online, especially given the negative impact of social media platforms on mental health (93%), cyber psychological violence (92%) and the need to find effective ways to restrict access to age-inappropriate content (92%).
Member States are starting to act and are taking measures such as introducing age limits and verification systems.
