The European Commission is considering an EU-wide ban or tighter restrictions on social media use for minors. President Ursula von der Leyen announced these plans at a summit on artificial intelligence and children, stating that the bloc could present new rules as early as this summer.
The move comes amid growing pressure from several member states to strengthen protections for children. Von der Leyen stated that the Commission is investigating platforms that allow children to go down rabbit holes of harmful content.
To support these efforts, the European Commission president revealed that an EU age-verification app is already technically complete. While France, Spain, and several other countries are already moving alone, the EU is now seeking bloc-level rules on minimum social-media ages.
An expert panel has been tasked to report back by July on the specific steps the EU should take to protect minors online, including the potential for a social media ban.