The EU KIDS Act Proposal: Towards a New Regulatory Framework for the Protection of Children Online

In this entry to Covington & Burling’s Inside Tech blog, authors Dan Cooper, Dita Charanzová, Jadzia Pierce, Anna Sophia Oberschelp de Meneses, Shona O’Donovan, Sam Jungyun Choi, Virginie de France & Edwin Djabatey dive into the European Commission’s proposed KIDS Act, a new framework aimed at strengthening children’s safety online. The proposed Regulation would introduce EU-wide rules on age-based account restrictions, age assurance and safety-by-design across a broad range of digital services.

The proposal would apply broadly, including to social networks, video-sharing platforms, app stores, online games, operating systems, AI companions and general conversational chatbots. Among its central measures, the KIDS Act would generally prevent children under 15 from creating accounts or accessing certain social networking and video-sharing services, subject to limited age-based exceptions and parental authorization.

The authors also examine the proposal’s age-assurance and product-design requirements. Covered providers would need to implement child-safety measures tailored to their services, while age-restricted platforms would generally have to use certified EU age-verification solutions. The framework would also strengthen children’s control over online experiences through child-friendly settings, content controls and safer defaults, while imposing additional compliance plans, independent audits and fees on certain Very Large Online Platforms and other providers.

Finally, the entry considers enforcement and the proposal’s potential impact on industry. The KIDS Act would largely rely on existing enforcement mechanisms under the Digital Services Act and AI Act, while allowing children and guardians to report suspected violations and use representative bodies to exercise their rights. If adopted, providers would need to make significant changes to account architecture, age-assurance systems, recommender systems, parental controls and product-development governance…

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