What Brussels decided on 29 October
On 29 October the European Commission's spokesperson for digital affairs, Thomas Regnier, announced that national draft laws on social media and minors will be held for 12 months if they overlap with the European rules on the way. The stated reason is to stop the internal market splitting into different rules from one country to the next. In the meantime, he said, the focus is on the negotiations over the European law and on enforcing the rules already in place.1
The first text to stop is Austrian. On 28 July Vienna had notified the Commission of an amendment to its audiovisual media law: a minimum age of 14 for video platforms that use features able to harm young people's development, and for those platforms a duty to run effective age checks, overseen by the media regulator, KommAustria.2 The Commission's opinion was due on 29 October, and the freeze came instead. The government wanted the ban to start on 1 January 2027. According to the Austrian news agency APA, it now cannot take effect before the end of July 2027. The vice-chancellor, Andreas Babler, replied that the law did not deserve to be put off and that Vienna will have everything ready to apply it as soon as the European deadlines run out.3
The freeze rests on European Directive 2015/1535. A government that wants to impose new rules on online services has to send the text to the Commission before adopting it and wait three months, during which Brussels and other governments can comment. If within those three months the Commission finds that the text covers a matter on which it has already put a proposal to Parliament and Council, the wait rises to 12 months from notification, and to 18 if the Council adopts its first-reading position in the meantime. The obligation lapses once the European law is adopted.4 Here the proposal is the EU KIDS Act, presented by the Commission on 17 September.5
Who is frozen and who is not
Greece made it in time. It notified its under-15 ban on 8 May, received a detailed opinion from the Commission in August, the formal warning of possible obstacles to the free movement of services, and on 23 October Parliament passed the law, which applies from 1 January 2027. On 29 October the Commission logged the final text.6
France notified its law in April and in July also received a detailed opinion. On 14 August the Conseil constitutionnel struck down its Article 1, the ban itself: barring social media under 15 without telling services and risks apart restricts freedom of expression too much, and requiring everyone, adults included, to prove their age without setting conditions and limits leaves privacy unprotected. On 14 September, three days before the European proposal, Paris notified a new version. It bans under-15s only from social networks with features judged risky, listed with the European guidelines in mind, exempts services such as online encyclopaedias and lets parents lift the ban between 13 and 15.7 Regnier would not say whether France can go ahead.8
Italy notified its text more than a year ago. Bill S.1136, first signed by Senator Lavinia Mennuni, was introduced on 13 May 2024 and allows accounts on social networks and video platforms only after the age of 15. It reached Brussels on 9 May 2025, and on 7 August 2025 the Commission replied with a detailed opinion.9 On 24 September 2025 the Senate's eighth committee adopted a new base text. The last sitting was on 16 June 2026, and as of 29 October the bill is still there.10 According to Il Fatto Quotidiano it has been stuck for over a year waiting for the government's opinions, and now risks running aground.1
Precisely because it is so old, that notification is well past the three months within which the directive allows the long wait to be imposed. But the same directive requires a text to be notified again if it changes significantly, for example if it becomes more restrictive.4 A new notification now would end up in the same wait as Austria's. According to Agence Europe, which reported the announcement, the Italian text stays outside the freeze, like those of France and Greece. The drafts that arrived later should fall inside it: Belgium on 28 August, Slovakia on 10 September, Portugal on 28 September. In Slovakia the government approved a bill at the end of August banning accounts under 16.8
National bans notified to Brussels, as of 29 October
| Country | Age | Notified | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austria | 14, video platforms with harmful features | 28 July 2026 | Frozen for 12 months, not before the end of July 2027 |
| Greece | 15 | 8 May 2026 | Passed on 23 October, applies from 1 January 2027 |
| France | 15, social networks with risky features | 14 September 2026, after the April text | Ordinary wait until 15 December |
| Italy | 15 | 9 May 2025 | Bill S.1136 in a Senate committee |
| Belgium, Slovakia, Portugal | Different thresholds | Between 28 August and 28 September 2026 | Inside the freeze, according to Agence Europe |
What the KIDS Act proposes
The European proposal sets three steps. Under 13, no social media: children can use video services designed for them, through an account managed by a parent and for no more than an hour a day. Between 13 and 15 there are "mini accounts", linked to a parent's account, with few contacts and at most an hour a day. From 15 the account is one's own, and the platform has to check the user's age when the account is opened.5
Then there is a part that has nothing to do with age and applies to every minor, on social media, video platforms, online games, chatbots and AI companion apps. It bans features that create dependency and feeds built on profiling, infinite scroll without stopping points, notifications during sleeping hours, unsolicited contact from strangers. Minors' profiles must be private, with location, camera and microphone switched off. And it reverses the burden of proof: the largest platforms will have to show, with a plan reviewed by an independent auditor, that their services are safe before opening them to children. Fines can reach 6% of worldwide turnover, and every member state will have to offer a free way to prove one's age, including to people without a digital identity.5
The criticism comes from two opposite sides. Moige, the Italian parents' movement, thinks the threshold of 13 is too low1 and wants the KIDS Act to be a floor, above which member states can protect children more: "Twelve months, in the life of a twelve-year-old, are an eternity" (translated).11 European Digital Rights, the network of European digital rights groups, fears instead that making everyone prove their age will create a two-tier internet that shuts out anyone who cannot or will not be checked, and argues that the problem lies in how platforms are designed. Eurochild, the network of children's organisations, welcomes the proposal but wants protections that do not depend on a parent being present.12 The text has to go through Parliament and the Council, and the Commission hopes for a deal in the coming months.8
The rules that already apply
While national laws wait, a European rule on minors already exists. Since 17 February 2024 the Digital Services Act has required every platform accessible to minors to take appropriate measures to ensure them a high level of privacy, safety and security. In July 2025 the Commission set out what it expects: minors' accounts private by default; streaks, read receipts and autoplay switched off; feeds that give more weight to what children ask for than to what they do. The largest platforms must also already offer everyone at least one feed that is not based on profiling.13
The hard part is enforcement. The Commission supervises the largest platforms directly. It opened an investigation into TikTok on 19 February 2024, and on 6 February 2026 it found, preliminarily, that its design creates dependency, through infinite scroll, autoplay, notifications and a highly personalised feed, and that the app should change the basic structure of its service. On 24 July it also objected to the settings of minors' accounts.14 The investigation into Instagram and Facebook has been open since 16 May 2024. On 29 April 2026 the Commission charged Meta with failing to keep out children under 13, who can sign up by typing a false date of birth, and on 10 July with addictive design.15 These are preliminary findings, and as of 29 October none of these investigations has ended in a decision.
Months of waiting, as of 29 October 2026
There is also a limit that applies freeze or no freeze. Google, Meta and TikTok run their European business from companies based in Ireland, and EU law gives supervision to the country where a service is established. In November 2023 the Court of Justice, ruling on an Austrian law challenged by those three companies, held that a member state cannot impose general and abstract obligations on platforms established in another EU country. It can act only against a single service, case by case, after asking the home country to intervene. On the same principle, in April 2026 the Lazio regional administrative court partly upheld a challenge by Aylo, the Cyprus-based owner of Pornhub, against the age checks imposed by AGCOM, Italy's communications regulator: before applying them to a site based in another European country, Italy should have followed the European procedure.16 It is no accident that the Austrian text provides for measures against individual foreign providers under that procedure.2
What I think
I think the Commission is right on one point. Twenty-seven different age limits would not protect any child better, and a national law, against companies based in Dublin, holds up only case by case and with difficulty. If the KIDS Act is adopted, the same rule will apply to a thirteen-year-old in Bari and to one in Vienna, enforced by an authority that already has the power to fine.
But the freeze is credible only if Brussels uses these twelve months to do its own part. The investigations into TikTok and Meta have been open for more than two years, the preliminary findings exist, the decisions do not. In mid-October CCIA Europe, the industry association whose members include Google, Meta and Apple, had asked the Commission to do exactly this: halt the Austrian law pending the KIDS Act.17 That a group of large companies asks for something and Brussels does it proves nothing improper. It does show who gains time, if the investigations stay where they are over the coming months.
On the substance, the age threshold takes up more of the debate than it deserves. Thirteen or fifteen matter little if the product stays the same, because dependency is created by infinite scroll and night-time notifications, not by a date of birth. According to Istat, 62.3% of Italian children aged 11 to 13 already had at least one social media account in 2023, on platforms that on paper start at 13.18 A ban that rests on age alone shifts the weight onto parents, who have to check, and onto children, who learn to type a false date. That is why the best part of the KIDS Act is putting the burden of proof on platforms. On one point European Digital Rights is right: age checks must not become the shortcut that lets the design of the service off the hook. They are needed, but they should be public, free and anonymous, and the platform should receive only a yes or a no on the threshold. On 29 April the Commission asked member states to offer, by the end of 2026, its verification app, which lets people prove they are past a threshold without revealing their exact age or their identity.19
For Italy the risk is a different one. Bill S.1136 was stuck before 29 October, and Brussels has nothing to do with it. The freeze must not become an excuse to put off what can be done straight away.
What can be done over the next twelve months
None of these steps needs a new law. In Italy the Digital Services Act coordinator is AGCOM, as I noted when writing about who will police AI, and since 2025 it has had a procedure for users' complaints.20
- CommissionClose the investigationsTikTok and Meta received preliminary findings between February and July 2026. If it asks member states to wait a year, Brussels should reach decisions, and visible changes to the products, within the same year.
- GovernmentA free proof of ageOn 29 April the Commission asked member states to offer the European age verification app by the end of 2026. It must work for children too and for people without SPID, and tell the platform only whether the threshold is met.
- AGCOMCollect complaintsIt takes complaints from users and associations against platforms and passes them to the authority of the country where the platform is based. Schools and parents' associations can document cases and get them all the way to the Irish regulator.
- Families and schoolsUse the rights that existPrivate profiles for minors and a feed not based on profiling can already be asked of platforms, and reported to AGCOM when they are missing. Until 3 December anyone can send comments on the European proposal.
On 3 December the window for comments on the European proposal closes.5 On 15 December the ordinary wait for the new French text runs out: Agence Europe and AFP write that it should not fall under the freeze, but Regnier would not commit himself.78 After that the Council will count: if governments adopt their position on the KIDS Act before the end of July 2027, Austria's wait rises to 18 months, until January 2028.4