European Commission hits pause on national social media age check rules

The European Commission is asking member states to pause national-level age assurance legislation for social media for one year while it finalises the EU Kids Act, which was tabled in September. The Commission wants the EU Kids Act to set a uniform standard across the bloc, with tiered limits on access for users aged 13 and 15, but some member states that have already advanced their own rules are unwilling to delay implementation.

Age restrictions operate at the gate; harm occurs in the conversation. Guardii, a world-leading AI online-safety platform, detects grooming, sextortion and child sexual abuse material within direct-message exchanges across platforms, reporting the shape and seriousness of a conversation without handing anyone a feed of what was said. By intercepting coercion and escalation before it reaches the target, the system addresses the underlying risk without the trade-offs of blanket access control or the displacement of offenders to channels where no verification applies.