Commission president confirms a proposal will be presented after the summer
The European Union should restrict access to social media for children aged under 13, a special online child safety advisory panel told Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Monday.
As she received the panel’s report, von der Leyen confirmed that the Commission would present an EU-wide proposal after summer, as first reported by Euractiv.
She told journalists there needs to be a “start date” for when children may join social media platforms, warning that average screen time for youngsters that can be as high as four to six hours per day – slightly shifting her framing of potential restrictions: back in May she referred to the notion of a social media “delay”.
The recommendations arrive amid intense political pressure from a number of EU capitals that are eyeing national rules to restrict social media for kids – most prominently, France has pitched a social media ban for under-15s.
