The EU's proposed age gate comes into focus

The EU's anticipated Kids Act now has a more specific reported design. Reuters, read through its WSAU republication, describes a Commission draft with age-tiered access covering social media, video-sharing, AI chatbots and online games. This is reporting about an unpublished draft, not an adopted proposal or a law in force.

Reuters reports independent accounts from age 15; parent-opened, restricted social/video accounts at 13–14; parent-controlled child-friendly services at 3–12; and no access below 3. It describes age checks at social/video account creation and before game downloads, plus company supervisory fees to fund enforcement.

The mechanism is differentiated access, verification and provider-funded oversight—not a simple universal exclusion of everyone under 15. But the underlying draft was not available for our inspection. Reuters says the Commission declined comment and details could change before presentation on September 17. Negotiation with member states and Parliament would still follow.

WSAU published the report at 18:19:26 UTC on September 14. The decisive next record is the Commission's actual text, including definitions, exceptions, privacy protections and remedies.