European Commission tells capitals to pause overlapping national social media bans for a year

The European Commission told member states on 29 October to pause draft national laws on children's social media access for 12 months where they overlap with its EU Kids Act. Spokesman Thomas Regnier said the executive had decided to "postpone for 12 months any draft national laws overlapping with the future harmonized rules", arguing that different age limits in different countries would fragment the single market and leave platforms unable to comply. Austria, the first country told to halt its legislation, said it would keep preparing its law so a ban could take effect once the pause expires. Regnier declined to list the countries affected but cited Austria.

Austria pushes back

Austria asked the Commission in July to check whether its proposed under-14 social media ban was compatible with EU law. A deadline for the Commission to respond lapsed on 29 October, and the executive told Vienna to pause adoption for a year, Regnier said.

Austrian State Secretary for digitalisation Alexander Pröll told Politico it was unacceptable for Brussels to block member states without presenting a completed European solution of its own. Vice-Chancellor and media minister Andreas Babler said he had no sympathy for the delay and that Vienna would "advance the legislative process at national level to ensure that the social media ban can be implemented immediately once the EU standstill period has expired". Regnier framed the decision differently: "A European problem requires a united European response. We need to now focus on the negotiations of the EU Kids Act."

Who is exempt, and who is not

Not every capital has been stopped. Greece's ban on under-15s, due to take effect on 1 January 2027, is exempt because the Commission's review of its law ended before the EU proposal was tabled. Italy and France notified their plans well before September and are expected to be allowed to proceed, according to the German news agency dpa. AFP reported that the Commission had nonetheless asked Paris to rework its text.

According to Agence Europe, the freeze would also catch draft laws that Belgium and Portugal notified. The freeze marks a hardening of the Commission's line: on 4 February, after Spain announced plans for an under-16 ban, Regnier warned that imposing extra obligations on platforms was off limits because the matter was already regulated by the Digital Services Act.

What the Kids Act would do

The Commission presented the EU Kids Act on 17 September, with President Ursula von der Leyen and executive vice-president Henna Virkkunen fronting the launch. It would bar under-13s from social media in most cases and severely restrict access for under-15s.

Under the proposal, children aged 13 and 14 could use social media only through "mini accounts" set up and supervised by their parents, and independent accounts would be permitted from the age of 15. The text also sets safety-by-design requirements for platforms, including video games and AI companions. National rules already diverge: Austria proposed under-14, Greece passed under-15 and Spain has proposed under-16, while the Kids Act sets its limits at 13 and 15. Agence Europe reported the standstill could be extended by a further six months if the Council adopts its first-reading position in the meantime.

Von der Leyen gave the European Parliament the numbers behind the push: young Europeans spend on average four to six hours a day in front of a screen, and those who started before the age of 10 spend around seven or eight hours online daily.

Think tanks linked to socialist parties in Spain, Germany, France, Italy and Portugal, meeting in Valencia from 2 to 4 September, want the regulation to add interoperability, so users can read and post on another platform without leaving their own.

What happens next

The Kids Act must still be negotiated by the European Parliament and the Council before it can become law. Ireland holds the rotating Council presidency and wants to speed up work on the file; Regnier called adoption the Commission's top priority. Austria will keep its draft under-14 law ready, Babler said, so it can be implemented when the pause ends.