Explained

If you find this article helpful and want deeper analysis or tailored advice and support, then get in touch – we’d be happy to discuss how our expertise can meet your needs. Even if you’re just curious about it all, we'd love to chat.

What’s been happening?

On 13 July, the EC’s Special Panel on Child Safety Online delivered its final report to EC President Ursula von der Leyen. The Panel was directed to discuss child safety online and potential age restrictions for social media, concluding their work with the report.

The Panel’s official meeting briefs covered:

• existing scientific evidence concerning the impact of social media, and more broadly the digital environment, on children and adolescents;

• existing EU legislation and tools, and national policy approaches to address child safety online;

• national policy approaches and potential recommendations to protect and empower children and adolescents in the digital world.

As part of these meetings, they discussed:

• pros and cons of introducing age restrictions for social media and other digital services;

• age-specific approaches to protecting and empowering minors, taking account of socioeconomic background and risk exposure;

• safety-by-design/default obligations for social media and other digital service providers;

• education and awareness measures for children, adolescents, parents, caregivers, teachers and educators;

• support for parents and educators, alongside tools to help children and adolescents benefit from the digital world.

Informed by these discussions and input from experts, the Co-chairs of the Panel authored the series of recommendations laid out in the report.

Why is the report important?

The recommendations will be key in shaping how the Commission regulates minors’ digital experiences, with a scope that includes multiplayer video games and game-adjacent social media.

In her speech, Von der Leyen made it clear that platforms must prove their services do not harm children, highlighting a clear path toward age-appropriate restrictions.

The report lands amid intense discussion. Some EU countries have proposed social media age restrictions, fragmenting regulation as the EC actively enforces the Digital Services Act against some of the major big tech companies. Internationally, countries like the UK are proposing expansive regulations to protect children not just from social media content, but also from risky features across platforms (Check our article on the UK proposals).

What are the Panel’s recommendations?

Rather than a blanket ban, the Panel proposed a more nuanced approach (we hope other countries and jurisdictions are listening…). Its framework aimed to introduce age restrictions and create a safety-by-design environment, ensuring that companies assume the main responsibility.

“Social media plus” scope

The Panel explicitly rejects narrow regulatory approaches that only cover traditional social networks and risk children simply migrating to less-regulated digital spaces. To prevent this, the report introduces a “social media plus” platform designation, applying to any digital service featuring age-inappropriate or addictive features.

This explicitly brings video games, AI companions, app stores, and video-sharing platforms into scope. For video games, the report explicitly identifies gaming platforms and games within social media as platforms where children might encounter addictive features, grooming, and other harmful contact.

Online safety age framework

The report recommends a phased approach to social media access, designed to align with developmental stages rather than a single age limit. For under-13s, the report suggests access to digital services should be time-limited, age-appropriate, and subject to parental authorisation or educational necessity. Adolescents (13-18) are less restricted but should transition from the supervised model toward autonomous use, guided by continued safety-by-design protections. While the report recommends a harmonised minimum entry threshold at 13, Member States retain the flexibility to impose higher age limits if they choose.

Safety-by design

The most significant proposal is a reversal of the burden of proof. Currently, regulators are responsible for proving that a platform is causing harm, but the report recommends that digital service providers should actively prove their platforms are safe for children before minors are allowed to access them. The report states:

“Until they demonstrate that their services are safe by design, social media and other digital services providers should have restricted access to children under the age of 13 in the EU.”

To back this up, the report recommends locking adult features by default, requiring effective age assurance before they can be activated. This suggests adults would also need to verify their age to access unrestricted versions of a platform – a requirement that is not usually popular amongst citizens (as we’ve seen with the UK’s Online Safety Act implementation).

Platforms must also implement age-appropriate safeguards to curb compulsive use, such as disabling features like infinite scrolling, autoplay, push notifications, and engagement-driven recommendations. Default settings must actively prevent dark patterns, unsolicited contact, and algorithmic rabbit holes.

For video games, the report specifically identifies monetisation models like loot boxes (those again?) as high-risk mechanics driving compulsive behaviour, while also highlighting the inherent safety risks associated with unmoderated, open communication features like voice and text chat.

Age assurance

Unsurprisingly, age assurance is key to enforcing these restrictions, and the report recommends that any method should meet the highest privacy and data protection standards. This means that systems should not require processing identity documents or biometric data for age estimation and should rely on privacy-enhancing technologies such as zero-knowledge proofs where possible. The report identifies the EU’s forthcoming Age Verification blueprint as the primary tool for compliance and enforcement of safety-by-design standards.

Strengthening consumer protections

The recommendations stretch into broader consumer policy, identifying upcoming initiatives like the Digital Fairness Act and the revision of the Consumer Protection Cooperation Regulation. These frameworks will be used to protect minors from aggressive marketing, dark patterns, and predatory monetisation techniques across all digital services, including video games.