Brussels freezes national plans to keep children off social media for a year, Belgium likely affected
Brussels first wants to agree on a European age limit and puts Austria's draft law on hold; France and Greece fall outside the pause.
The European Commission does not want any new national bans on social media for children until a European framework is in place. Draft laws that overlap with the planned European age limit will be postponed for twelve months, spokesperson Thomas Regnier said on Thursday, The Korea Times reports. The specific case was an Austrian draft that would only have allowed platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat from the age of 14. In September the Commission itself proposed keeping children under 13 off social media and allowing only limited, supervised access up to the age of 15, in a proposal called the EU Kids Act.
According to Heise, member states must notify the Commission of national bills on digital rules, and Poland and Belgium also submitted proposals. The German tech outlet expects those to be put on hold for now as well. The situation is different for France and Greece, which submitted their plans before the European proposal was tabled. Greece has already announced that young people under 15 will no longer be allowed to use social media from 1 January 2027. The Commission has yet to decide on Italy and Slovakia.
Brussels fears a patchwork of age limits that would be hard to enforce and would make member states less eager to pass the European law. The Commission hopes member states and the European Parliament will reach a deal within a few months, but according to Heise it could also take years. In Austria the decision went down badly, public broadcaster ORF reports. Vice-chancellor Andreas Babler wants to push the national procedure far enough for the ban to take effect as soon as the European deadline expires, at the earliest at the end of July 2027.