The plenary session of the European Parliament requested this Tuesday Blocking access to social networks for minors under the age of 13 and up to 16 years if there is no parental permission. It did so through a non-binding motion by 483 votes to 92 with 86 abstentions, “to express deep concern about the physical and mental health risks that minors face online and to call for tougher protections against manipulative strategies that can increase addiction and that harm children’s ability to concentrate and engage in healthy engagement with online content,” the statement said.
In this way, Parliament proposes a harmonized digital minimum age of 16 in the EU for access to social networks, video sharing platforms and AI companions. Allowing access to young people between the ages of 13 and 16 with the consent of their parents. This idea follows the line already set by Brussels in recent months.
In this sense, the plenary expressed its support for the Commission’s work to develop a European age verification application and a European digital identity (eID) wallet, and MEPs insist on this. Age verification systems must be accurate and protect the privacy of minors. These regulations do not relieve platforms of their responsibility to ensure that their products are safe and age-appropriate by design, she added in the text voted on in Strasbourg.
Meanwhile, in the decision political groups suggest that senior managers May be personally liable in cases of serious non-compliance And ongoing, especially with regard to the protection of minors and age verification.
In its proposal, the European Parliament calls for a series of more stringent measures to protect minors on the Internet. Among them, it calls for rejecting the most obviously addictive practices, and deactivating other functions that encourage compulsive use, such as infinite scrolling, autoplay, or reward loops, by default. It is also suggested to exclude and dispose of European network sites that do not comply with EU regulations Against technologies designed to influence behavior, such as personalized advertisingInfluencer marketing, addictive design and so-called “dark patterns”. Likewise, it calls for preventing minors from being exposed to interaction-based recommendation systems, and for digital services law rules to be fully enforced on video platforms, including banning loot boxes and other luck mechanics within video games.
Furthermore, Parliament insists on strengthening the protection of minors from commercial exploitation, Preventing platforms from offering financial incentives for activities to influence the behavior of minors. It also urges us to immediately confront the ethical and legal challenges posed by generative AI technologies, such as A.I. Deep fakesOr companion chatbots, artificial intelligence agents, or apps capable of producing manipulated images without consent. Together, these actions seek to create a safer and more responsible digital environment for young people.
Everything the European Parliament is now proposing is in line with the Act on the Protection of Children in the Digital Sphere, a standard already approved by the Council of Ministers last March, which seeks to put an end to the “law of the jungle” prevailing on the Internet that harms the development of children and adolescents. The project implemented by the Ministry of Youth and Childhood It is considering measures such as punishment, with prison sentences of up to two years, for creating and disseminating sexual images made using artificial intelligence. It also includes virtual restraining orders, requiring all technological devices to come from the factory with parental controls or increasing the age allowed to create a profile on social networks to 16 years.
In fact, in this context, the Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, a few days ago, asked the parties to support this legislation in the House of Representatives, in his words, “with broad consensus” and “above political calculations.” He also had a message for the platforms, asking them to participate and collaborate to reduce the impact of technology misuse among young people. “We have to demand and demand that big tech companies do their part as quickly as they innovate.”said the CEO, who asked them to “be brave” and “not to look the other way when there are instances of cyberbullying.”
A study conducted by the European Parliament itself showed 97% of youth are connected to the Internet daily and 78% of youth between the ages of 13 and 17 use their devices At least once an hour. At the same time, one in four minors shows “problematic” or “disordered” use of smartphones, i.e. behavioral patterns that reflect addiction. Likewise, according to the Eurobarometer 2025, more than 90% of Europeans believe it is urgent to take measures to protect children online, especially regarding the negative impact of social networks on mental health (93%), cyberbullying (92%) and the need to find effective ways to restrict access to age-inappropriate content (92%).