EU To Outline Guidelines On Children Accessing Social Media

The European Commission are set to confirm that children and teenagers under the age of 15 will not be able to set up a social media account without the parental consent or guardian permission, with those under the age of 13 only able to access "child friendly alternatives". 

These are part of proposals under new draft plans set out by their president, Ursula von der Leyen, which is expected to be called 'EU Kids Act', which is to be outlined in her annual state of the union address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg tomorrow.

Ms Von der Leyen is set to outline these plans further the following day with her colleague, Henna Virkkunen, the executive vice president of the EU for tech sovereignty, security and democracy.

The plans are to include what is being known as a "block" or "delay" on children and teenagers' access to social media sites.

The plan is set to include the following four stages:

• A total ban on children under the age of three accessing social media.
• A demand that children aged three to 13 can only access "child friendly" versions of social media.
• That children aged 13 to 15 can only open a social media account with the express permission of their parent, parents or guardian, that a parent or guardian will have the right to monitor the account, and that a screen time limit will be imposed on the account.
• That teenagers aged 15 to 18 can only access "safe by design" versions of social media.

The one topic which remains very much up for debate is the age limit, and whether it could be legally implemented due to recent legislative issues in France over such a policy. There have also been concerns over whether or not it would be practical to do this, given the similar implementation issues in Australia.