{
  "id": 8248696,
  "title": "EU unveils KIDS Act banning endless scrolling, midnight pings and AI ‘friendships’ in online safety push",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/18/eu-unveils-kids-act-banning-endless-scrolling-midnight-pings-and-ai",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-09-18T13:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Malay Mail",
    "slug": "malay-mail-malaymail",
    "url": "https://www.malaymail.com/news/tech-gadgets/2026/09/18/eu-unveils-kids-act-banning-endless-scrolling-midnight-pings-and-ai-friendships-in-online-safety-push/235645"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Strasbourg, France - The European Union unveiled plans on Thursday for stringent age restrictions on children's access to social media, games, and AI assistants, alongside compelling companies to ensure platform safety before minors engage with them. This proposal, dubbed the \"EU KIDS Act,\" primarily aims to safeguard the well-being of minors online by limiting addictive features such as endless scrolling and nighttime notifications. The EU's chief, Ursula von der Leyen, emphasized the \"reversal of the burden of proof,\" stating that companies must demonstrate the safety of their platforms to comply with the new regulations.\n\nThe draft law encompasses various measures. For social media, children aged 15 and above will be permitted to create accounts, while those aged 13 to 14 can utilize \"mini accounts\" managed through a parent's account. These accounts would be subject to strict guidelines, including a daily screen time limit of one hour. Furthermore, the EU seeks to empower parents by enabling minors to employ video-sharing apps under parental supervision, allowing parents to control access to other services and online time.\n\nIn addition, the EU will enforce safety standards for social media, video-sharing platforms, online games, AI companions, and chatbots. This includes prohibiting algorithms that lead children to harmful content and restricting reward mechanisms that encourage excessive use. AI chatbots must not simulate interpersonal relationships in a manner that fosters emotional dependency in children. By default, children's profiles will remain private, with cameras and microphones turned off, and it should be straightforward for minors to block or mute users. Once enacted, the law will be uniformly applicable throughout Europe, overriding any existing national regulations with differing age limits or rules.\n\nThe implementation of the EU KIDS Act hinges on negotiations between the European Parliament and EU member states, a process that could span several months. The European Commission, the EU's digital watchdog, has called for a swift adoption of the proposal, citing the urgent need for comprehensive action given the evidence of social media's detrimental effects on children's physical and mental health, as well as the risks posed by predators and cyberbullying.\n\nTo ensure compliance, platforms will need to submit a \"compliance plan\" to the EU Commission and an independent auditor for review. If a proposed service or feature is deemed unsatisfactory, the commission can require corrective measures. The EU also reserves the right to conduct investigations into platforms that fail to meet the standards, with violations potentially resulting in fines of up to six percent of the company's annual revenue. Should the law be adopted, it will be enforced uniformly across all EU member states, superseding any conflicting national legal frameworks. Meanwhile, the EU is concurrently developing an age-check application to verify that minors under the age limits cannot access social media. Privacy advocates have expressed reservations, but the EU assures that the app will not transmit personal data to digital platforms, only providing a simple \"yes\" or \"no\" response in a cryptographically secure manner.",
  "summary": "STRASBOURG (France), Sept 18 — The EU laid out plans Thursday for strict age limits for children to access social...",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}