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EU Parliament: we must ensure a safe online environment for children

The measures called for include phased access to social media, greater transparency regarding algorithmic systems and a code of conduct for influencers

by Camilla Colombo

17 September 2026

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Young group of people using mobile phone device standing together in circle outdoors. Millennial friends addicted to social media app, betting or playing video game on platform online. Xavier Lorenzo - stock.adobe.com

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

On the day that the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced the adoption of the EU Kids Act – the regulation setting limits on the use of social media by minors – the European Parliament also called for ‘an integrated European strategy’ involving legislators, families and schools to ensure that social media and the internet are safe, particularly for younger users. With 395 votes in favour, 136 against and 80 abstentions, MEPs have adopted a series of proposals to oblige platforms, EU countries and the Commission to ensure a safe online environment for minors living in the European Union.

Whilst recognising that digital technology offers opportunities for learning and the development of creativity, the European Parliament highlights the risks of addiction to social media and exposure to cyberbullying, which can lead to mental health problems. For this reason, platforms are being called upon to take greater responsibility for protecting young people from harmful or manipulative content and to mitigate the impact of persuasive design that fosters addiction, by implementing risk-based safeguards for recommendation systems, as well as measures to ban practices that increase addiction.

Reactions and data

“President von der Leyen’s EU Kids Act is a positive step forward and moves in the direction set out in our report on social media and young people,” commented the rapporteur for the report on the impact of social media and the online environment on young people, Sandro Ruotolo (S&D, IT). “Algorithms do not stop at borders: Europe needs common rules. No social media for under-13s, supervised access for 13 to 15-year-olds, including a limit of one hour a day, and greater autonomy thereafter. Responsibility cannot rest solely with children and families: platforms must make their products safe.’

This appeal comes against a backdrop of the widespread adoption of digital technology in everyday life: according to Eurostat data, by 2025 98 per cent of young people aged between 16 and 29 in the European Union will have used the internet on a daily basis, compared with 90 per cent of the total population. Participation in social networks was the most common online activity amongst young people last year: creating profiles and posting messages are a regular practice for an average of 89 per cent of young people.

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The EU Parliament’s requests

The European Parliament’s strategy for the protection of children online is therefore based on three points:

A safer online environment and social media, with the introduction of age verification without the collection or storage of personal data; greater transparency regarding algorithmic systems; the deactivation of targeted advertising aimed at children; mandatory ethical standards for AI-based virtual companions (the so-called AI companions); greater transparency in the training of AI models and a ban on AI systems generating, manipulating or modifying images or videos depicting sexual content of a person without their consent;
protection against illegal and harmful video content through the revision of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD);
EU code of conduct for influencers.

Civil society’s demands

During President von der Leyen’s State of the Union address on Wednesday, the Patti Digitali Ets Foundation also spoke out, alongside 20 other European parents’ movements – representing hundreds of thousands of families in total – with the following request: to establish a harmonised minimum age of at least 16 for access to social media, at least until the platforms have demonstrated that they are safe and appropriate for minors.

The letter, sent on 9 September to the Commission President, is based on a shared principle: the safety of children must be guaranteed ‘by default’, that is, as the default setting. It is therefore up to the platforms to demonstrate that their services are safe and age-appropriate, rather than children, young people, families and the authorities having to prove the harm caused after the event. The urgency of the matter is underlined by the estimate given in the letter: more than 10,000 children in the European Union start using social media every day before the age of 16, thousands of whom are under 12.

“The point is not merely to understand what the platforms of the future should be like, but what we are doing today, whilst the current ones have not yet proved to be safe and age-appropriate,” pointed out Professor Marco Gui, president of the Fondazione Patti Digitali and lecturer in Media Sociology at the University of Milan-Bicocca.