Latest news on social media age limits and more
Dear readers!
It has taken a surprisingly long time. For years, parents, teachers and young people have been left to deal alone with the consequences of social media platforms that prioritise maximising attention at any cost – and it is children and young people, above all, who are paying the price.
Now, at last, things are starting to move.
An expert group set up by the European Commission to protect children online published its recommendations this Monday (13 July 2026) (read them here).
The expert group’s report has three key points:
- “Safety by Design”: platforms have a duty of care
- Age-appropriate restrictions for platforms are required
- Gradual and phased access to social media
These are the right approaches. I consider two fundamental findings by the expert group to be particularly crucial:
Firstly, the expert group recognises that children and young people are using platforms that were built not for their well-being, but to maximise attention. Even more important, however, is a second finding that is finally gaining political traction: Age restrictions alone will not solve the problem.
The European Commission is now reviewing the report and intends to present a proposal for implementation after the summer. These are my thoughts and demands for a sensible and effective implementation:
For age restrictions to be implemented effectively at all, we need a data-protection-friendly age verification system. It must neither be in the hands of the major platforms nor rely on biometric methods or new data collection by corporations. Instead, we need European solutions based on zero-knowledge technologies: anonymous, unlinkable, untraceable and without the transfer of personal data. Ultimately, the platform learns only one thing: Yes, old enough – or No, not old enough. Nothing more.
But there is something else that is crucial: the platforms themselves must become safe. This represents an important shift in perspective.
For the real question is not: At what age should children be allowed to use social media? But rather: Why are platforms allowed to offer products at all that are specifically optimised for addiction, manipulation and maximum screen time?
The business models of the major platforms are based on capturing users’ attention for as long as possible. To do this, they analyse every click, create detailed personality profiles and use recommendation algorithms to display precisely the content that keeps people on the platform for the longest time. Outrage trumps nuance. Extreme content trumps balanced content. Hate trumps facts.
This affects us all. But children and young people in particular.
That is precisely why, together with Verena Schäffer, I have presented a package of measures for safe social media (read more here, in German). Our approach is clear: do not punish children, but hold platforms to account. Age restrictions – we are calling for them from the age of 14 – can be useful, but only in conjunction with the consistent enforcement of the Digital Services Act, effective sanctions against breaches of the rules and fundamental changes to the recommendation algorithms.
After all, these rules have actually been in place for a long time.
Just last week, the European Commission presented preliminary findings from a DSA investigation showing that Facebook and Instagram are harmful to their users’ health. The problem: endless scrolling, autoplay, push notifications and highly personalised recommendation systems. The European Commission is therefore calling for far-reaching changes from Meta.
But we should go one step further.
As long as our digital public sphere is controlled by a handful of non-European tech giants, we will only ever be trying to limit the damage they cause. Europe, therefore, needs its own social media platforms – platforms that align with our democratic values, respect privacy, and, of course, comply with European law. And which are finally taxed fairly through a European digital tax.
It is good that the European Commission now intends to implement the expert group’s report. But we must not stop there. I will continue to work on this.
Would you like to support me in this? Then please forward this email to anyone who might be interested.
Many thanks and European regards,
Yours, Alexandra Geese