An expert committee is due to deliver its recommendations on Monday on how the European Union should regulate children's access to social media, including a potential blanket ban. More than 20 countries worldwide, including France, have already implemented or proposed age restrictions.
Issued on: 13/07/2026 - 07:35
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Dozens of experts from various countries have contributed to the recommendations, which will be submitted to the European Commission. The EU's executive body commissioned the report last year to help shape its proposals for new regulations on children's access to social media. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has already indicated that she favours a restrictive approach. "Just as in my day we as a society taught our children that they could not smoke, drink and watch adult content until a certain age, I believe it is time we consider doing the same for social media," she said in her state of the union address in September. Invoking Australia's ban on social media for under-16s, von der Leyen said she was following the outcome of the policy closely "to see what next steps we can take here in Europe". Several member states are on board with a ban and von der Leyen could outline proposed legislation as early as September, multiple officials told Politico news site. Von der Leyen steps up EU child safety crackdown on social media giants Global debate France is one of the EU countries leading the call for tighter controls on social media, with the government seeking to fast-track legislation that would ban under-15s from major platforms from the start of the new school year in September. The bill has been held up by disagreements in parliament over whether to apply the ban to all social networks or just those that regulators judge to be harmful – a distinction that the European Commission has warned could make it incompatible with EU law. With several member states pushing ahead with their own legislation, the EU is under pressure to come up with a consistent joint approach.
