An age-based approach and six guiding principles: the protection of children online according to the EU

Tailored recommendations for specific age groups and six guiding principles to protect children online, whilst also fostering their independence and awareness. These are the key points emerging from the report published yesterday by the Special Panel on Children’s Online Safety, commissioned by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and co-chaired by Professor Jörg M. Fegert and Dr Maria Melchior. Against this backdrop is the growing political and social consensus – as also highlighted by the latest Eurobarometer survey – regarding the need to regulate young people’s access to social media. A proposed piece of legislation at European level is expected after the summer.

In Italia, the reaction from those who have long been involved in these issues – and who study how social media, with their characteristics of addictive design, can be a factor that worsens quality of life, particularly among pre-teens – has been positive. According to the president of the Patti Digitali Foundation, Marco Gui, lecturer in Media Sociology at the University of Milan-Bicocca, “the report and President von der Leyen’s statements confirm that the approach taken by the network of digital pacts and other parent and school movements across Europe is heading in the right direction: protection and education are two complementary tools in the field of media literacy’.”

The studies highlighting a negative impact of social media use on children – in Italia, the EYES UP study, conducted by the University of Milan-Bicocca and the University of Brescia, has demonstrated, in terms of causal inference, the negative effect of early social media use on levels of academic achievement as measured by the Invalsi tests. And the resulting policy measures, which inmany countries are restricting access for younger people, have consequently led the expert group – announced in 2025 and which met three times in 2026 – to publish a report of over 150 pages on how to improve the digital environment and thereby help policy-makers, teachers and parents to guide children in their use of social media, services and platforms online.

The step-by-step approach, depending on age and content, is one of the most prominent elements. After all, the risks faced by an eight-year-old are not the same as those faced by a 16-year-old. For children under three years of age, for example, the main risks are relational in nature and linked to so-called ‘techno-distraction’, as they are passive consumers of online content. Between the ages of three and five, children begin to use devices more independently (albeit under supervision) and become vulnerable to the effects of increased screen time. In the age group between six and nine years, the use of social media and other digital services increases significantly, and feedback from the online world becomes intertwined with self-esteem, which is developing precisely through the acquisition of real-world skills. Between 10 and 12 years old, access to social media spaces becomes a fundamental prerequisite for social participation. At this age, children face the most critical convergence between typical developmental vulnerabilities and platform-induced amplification. Between 13 and 15 years of age, adolescents transition to a use of social media characterised by evolving autonomy, and traditional forms of supervision by parents, guardians and school staff become increasingly less effective. Finally, between the ages of 16 and 18, adolescents – whilst undergoing a phase of increasing identity consolidation and greater autonomy – have not yet completed their neurobiological development, and the risks of addiction, anxiety and mental health problems are exacerbated by the use of social media and other digital services.

The recommendations, in a nutshell, are therefore defined by age: