Horizon Scan: Children's Online Safety and Privacy (EU and Beyond)
Guardii Analysis
The European Commission is expected to outline its proposal on minors' access to social media this week, following recommendations from a Special Panel on child safety online and mounting pressure from Member States. Austria proposed legislation in July 2026 restricting access for under-14s to certain social media platforms relying on recommendation algorithms, infinite scrolling and reward systems, with compliance required by March 2027; France approved legislation in July 2026 restricting social media access for users under 15. The temporary derogation from certain provisions of the ePrivacy Directive, which allows communications services to undertake voluntary measures to detect, report and remove online child sexual abuse material, has been renewed following a short period of expiration.
When age gates fail or are circumvented, the harm persists in direct messages and group chats. A detection layer that monitors the conversation itself for escalation, coercion and sustained targeting addresses the operational gap: the anti-grooming, anti-sextortion and CSAM detection capabilities deployed by Guardii operate across Instagram, Snapchat, Discord, Roblox and other platforms to intercept predatory contact in real time, report the shape and seriousness of the threat without handing over message content, and enable rapid escalation to the authority who can act, whether parent, school safeguarding lead or law enforcement.