BRUSSELS — An EU expert group will begin work this week on whether to restrict or ban social media access for children, aiming to deliver recommendations by summer, the European Commission said. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will attend the panel’s inaugural meeting on Thursday, underscoring the political weight behind the effort she launched in September.
Brussels is weighing a minimum age to use social media across the 27-nation bloc, taking cues from Australia, which in December ordered TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat and other major platforms to remove accounts held by under-16s or face heavy fines. EU officials are closely watching how that Australian measure fares amid early legal challenges.
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The consultative panel will hold a series of meetings before issuing guidance on next steps. “The panel will advise the president and the commission as a whole on potential additional measures to put in place to protect our kids online,” commission spokesman Thomas Regnier said.
The move reflects mounting pressure from several member states to harden protections for minors on social media. France — along with Denmark, Greece and Spain — has pushed for coordinated EU action. Ireland says it will work with “like-minded” countries to explore age restrictions, focusing in particular on those under 16, and has advocated for a blocwide decision on a “digital age of majority” while reserving the option to act domestically if needed.
Von der Leyen has signaled support for a blocwide minimum age limit but wants the expert group’s assessment before deciding on an approach. The commission has not specified what form any proposal could take, whether a legal mandate on platforms, a harmonized age threshold enforced nationally, or new compliance obligations designed to strengthen verification and enforcement.
The review comes as parents, schools and lawmakers intensify scrutiny of how social platforms shape young people’s mental health and online safety. Australia’s under-16 rule offers a live test case for how far regulators can go in setting strict age thresholds and compelling platforms to verify user ages and proactively remove accounts — and how the courts may respond.
Any EU recommendation would need to account for the bloc’s diversity of national laws and practices on children’s rights, education and data protection, and how those intersect with social media use. Officials have not indicated a specific age under consideration. The panel’s task is to map the harms, weigh enforcement options and propose practical measures that could work at scale across Europe’s single market.
The commission did not set a firm date for the group’s conclusions but said it expects recommendations by the summer. Those findings could inform potential legislative proposals or guidance later in the year, depending on political consensus among member states and the commission’s own assessment of legal and technical feasibility.
For now, Brussels’ message is clear: the status quo of unverified access for younger users is under review, and a common European line on the minimum age for social media use is on the table.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
