The European Union (EU) is preparing to introduce a bill banning children under 15 years old from arbitrarily using social networks, video sharing platforms, chatbots applying artificial intelligence (AI) and online electronic games.
According to internal documents of the European Commission (EC), the bill is within the framework of the "EU Children Act". EC President Ursula von der Leyen and Technology Commissioner Henna Virkkunen are expected to officially announce the bill on September 17. Previously, Ms. von der Leyen may reveal some key contents in her Union State of the Union address on September 16.
The document clearly states that the EU's policy orientation is to create conditions for teenagers to exploit the potential of digital utilities, in parallel with protecting them from the risk of exploitation and abuse. Along with that, regulators must establish barriers to prevent technology corporations from accessing young users.
The EC's new proposal divides the roadmap for accessing digital services by age group. Children from 15 years old and older are allowed to establish personal accounts themselves.
Children from 13 to 14 years old can only ask their parents to open elementary trial accounts on social networks and video platforms. These accounts are subject to direct parental control, with strict restrictions on contacts as well as access time.
For groups from 3 to 12 years old, parents completely control the account. This age group is only allowed to access specialized services that are child-friendly and have been censored according to high safety standards. Children under 3 years old are absolutely not allowed to access any online services subject to adjustment.
The new regulations will be applied directly to technology "giants", including Meta with Facebook and Instagram, ByteDance with TikTok, Google with YouTube or ChatGPT model developers.
The draft requires businesses to pay a "surveillance fee" to fund inspection and law enforcement activities of management agencies. Technology companies must also proactively eliminate addictive interface designs and malware-promoting algorithms, and integrate tools to help young users easily report negative content.
The most notable point lies in the age verification requirement. Social media and video platforms are required to apply the actual age verification process when users register to open an account. Similarly, online game platforms must check the age before allowing game applications to be downloaded to devices.
