EU Commission Proposes KIDS Act to Enhance Online Safety for Minors

On 17 September 2026, the European Commission published its proposal for the EU Keeping Internet Digital Spaces Accountable and Trustworthy Act, establishing a child-specific regulatory framework covering social media, video-sharing platforms, AI companions and chatbots, and online games. The proposal responds to mounting pressure from Member States to prevent legislative fragmentation across the EU that could arise from diverging national social media bans, and draws heavily on enforcement frameworks under the Digital Services Act, the AI Act, and GDPR. The KIDS Act would require providers to implement age assurance, safe defaults, recommender controls, and limits on addictive design features, with enforcement powers vested in existing competent authorities under the DSA and AI Act.

An access ban addresses the question of who may open an account but leaves the underlying harm mechanisms in place for those who do: a determined child still faces grooming, sextortion and abuse once inside the perimeter, and restricting lawful users displaces both harm and help-seeking to unregulated channels where detection fails entirely. Real-time pattern detection operated by a Meta Business Partner intercepts coercion and escalation at the point of contact, across Instagram, Snapchat, Discord and Roblox, surfacing a child in crisis to the responsible adult without requiring age gates that burden every user including adults or handing anyone a feed of private conversation content, and enabling rapid escalation to authorities when a predator is identified.