Europe Moves to Block Under-16s From Social Media and Addictive AI

Friday, 28 November 2025 at 03:52

Okay, let's just cut through the noise. The European Parliament has had it. This past week, they voted decisively—483 to 92, which is huge—to tell Big Tech that the experiment on children ends here. They want an EU-wide minimum age of 16 for social media, video sites, and even those AI companion apps.

The New Accountability: Not Just Fines, But Personal Risk

This isn't your parents' regulation. The proposal goes straight for the throat: the problem isn't just content, it's addiction by design. Think about it: infinite scrolling, reward loops, pull-to-refresh. These aren’t accidental features; they’re manipulative tools engineered to keep kids glued to screens, damaging their concentration and mental health. That’s the core issue.

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Parliament is now demanding that the most harmful practices be banned entirely for minors, and other addictive features be disabled by default. They're also pushing the European Commission to consider holding senior managers (yes, people like Zuckerberg and Musk) personally liable for serious, persistent safety failures. Personal liability! Suddenly, compliance stops being a PR problem and becomes an executive crisis.

The Parental Consent Catch

What does the 16+ rule actually mean? It means kids between 13 and 16 would need explicit, formal parental consent to use these services. It shifts the burden from a single, quick button click ("I'm 13") to a necessary family discussion.

To make this feasible, the EU is backing the development of a privacy-preserving age verification app and the European Digital Identity (eID) Wallet. The message is clear: platforms can't just throw up a digital fence; they still have the responsibility to make the entire service safe by design. They can’t just rely on a new app to clean up their mess.

Measures targeting addictive and manipulative digital features

The European Parliament is asking the Commission to advance stricter protections for minors, including:

Ban on the most harmful addictive practices, and default disabling of other addictive features for minors (infinite scrolling, autoplay, pull-to-refresh, reward loops, harmful gamification).
Bans on platforms that do not comply with EU child-safety rules.
Action against persuasive technologies such as targeted ads, influencer marketing, addictive design and dark patterns under the upcoming Digital Fairness Act.
Ban on engagement-based recommendation systems for minors.
Application of DSA protections to online video platforms, and prohibition of loot boxes and other randomised gaming features, including in-app currencies, fortune wheels and pay-to-progress models.
Measures to prevent commercial exploitation of minors, including restrictions on platforms offering financial incentives for kidfluencing.
Urgent action addressing risks linked to generative AI, including deepfakes, AI companionship chatbots, AI agents and synthetic nudity apps.

AI and the 'Kidfluencing' Nightmare

The report isn’t ignoring the future either. It screams for urgent action against generative AI risks—you know, deepfakes, those sketchy AI companionship chatbots, and apps that generate manipulated images. These are immediate, escalating threats that the existing Digital Services Act (DSA) needs to be able to handle, and handle fast.

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Plus, they’re finally tackling the uncomfortable ethics of commercial exploitation, specifically kidfluencing. The proposal wants to stop platforms from offering financial rewards or incentives to encourage parents to use their children as mini-influencers. It’s a necessary move to protect minors from being monetized by the very people who should be protecting them.

Look, this is not law yet; it’s a massive pressure push. But when over 90% of Europeans demand action, and the Parliament adopts a comprehensive report like this, you know the tide has turned. The world is watching to see if Europe can actually force the tech giants to put children before profit.