KIDS Act: Do Europeans support banning social media for children?
Some 91% of Europeans agree on tightening social media regulation for children, with a blanket ban emerging as the most widely backed measure.
The KIDS Act, a proposed EU regulation, aims to ban children under 13 from using social media platforms and restrict features for those aged 13 to 15. The primary objectives of the legislation are to combat phone addiction, prevent access to harmful content and dangerous contacts, and mitigate mental and physical risks associated with social media usage.
While child rights organizations generally support the proposal, some express concerns that restricting access for teenagers might push them towards more dangerous online communities. A Eurobarometer poll conducted for the EU found that 91% of citizens believe additional measures are necessary to regulate child social media use.
The action garnering the most support (36%) was a complete ban of social media for children under a specific age. Greece demonstrated the strongest backing for this measure, with 49% of respondents in favor, followed by Bulgaria, Romania, Portugal, Ireland, and Slovakia, all with 44% support. In contrast, central European countries like Austria, Germany, and the Czech Republic displayed the lowest support, with 27%, 28%, and 29% respectively.
The proposed legislation aligns with existing standards set by Article 8 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which mandates that social media platforms should not allow users under 13 to independently create accounts. Instead, parents must initiate and confirm these accounts for their children, who would then be managed through a parent profile or admin dashboard.
This setup would set daily screen time limits, with a maximum of one hour per day. Child rights advocates argue that while the KIDS Act advances the cause of protecting young users, the responsibility for ensuring online safety should remain with families rather than being solely dependent on parental authorization. Concerns about child social media usage are widespread across the EU, with approximately 70% of respondents expressing worry about cyberbullying (71%), online grooming (70%), and exposure to harmful content (69%).
However, the concern regarding addictive design, a primary focus of the KIDS Act, is comparatively lower, with only 60% of respondents expressing "very" or "somewhat" concern. Notably, Cyprus and Luxembourg exhibit significantly higher levels of worry about addictive design, with 89% and 87% of respondents respectively expressing such concern.
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