Europe moves to lock minors out of social media

Where things stand

The push to restrict minors' access to social media in Europe is now advancing on two tracks at once, and today they converged on TikTok. The European Commission has told the platform that it does not sufficiently protect minors, pointing to risks of cyberbullying and exposure to potential predators, and has demanded changes to account settings; failure to comply could expose TikTok to a fine of up to 6% of its global revenue. That intervention lands days after French deputies and senators adopted a bill banning social media for under-15s on 21 July, making France the clearest national test case for an outright age threshold. The two approaches are not identical, and the gap between them is emerging as the central question of the topic. According to Le Monde, the Commission favours a graduated approach, with access staggered across different age groups, rather than a single cut-off of the kind France has chosen. For now the pressure on TikTok is regulatory rather than legislative: Brussels is seeking to force design changes on an existing platform, while Paris has legislated a threshold, and it remains unclear how the French ban and any eventual European framework would be reconciled.

European authorities have been moving to limit how far children and teenagers can use social media, arguing that platform design leaves minors insufficiently protected. The European Commission can press individual platforms directly over their handling of minors, demanding changes such as different default account settings, and can back those demands with financial penalties reaching up to 6% of a company's global revenue. Separately, national governments have begun setting their own age limits in law, with France adopting a bill to bar under-15s from social media. Reporting by Le Monde indicates the Commission's own preference runs toward staggered access for different age groups rather than a single ban threshold. TikTok, one of the platforms most used by younger users, is the first major target of this pressure.