The Hague and Madrid are pushing forward with an EU-wide minimum age for social media use, potentially extended to other online services, as the European Commission prepares to announce its proposal next week.
The ban on social media should be harmonised and enforced at the European level, and extended to video games, artificial intelligence chatbots and other dangerous digital services, the two countries said in a non-legal document circulated on Friday.
Restricting minors' access to social media has become an increasingly hot topic in the EU and beyond. France, Greece, Austria, Denmark, Spain, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Poland and the Netherlands are considering or advancing national legislation in this direction.
Under pressure to avoid a multitude of national approaches, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced in May that an EU proposal was coming and is now expected during her State of the Union address next week.
Prior to this announcement, the Dutch and Spanish governments circulated a document aimed at shaping the future proposal, stressing that “the introduction of a minimum age for social media is a measure that must necessarily be added to existing and future legal frameworks.”
Both countries argue that the measure must be proportionate and respect fundamental rights, including freedom of expression, information and data protection — and be supported by a comprehensive impact assessment.
In August, the French Constitutional Council struck down a national law banning access to social media for people under 15, ruling that the measure was too broad and not sufficiently proportionate because it violated constitutional rights.
The Dutch-Spanish paper argues for addressing addictive algorithms and harmful design in all digital services through a risk-based approach, not just in social media, expanding its scope to include video games and artificial intelligence companions.
"There should be an opportunity for online service providers to obtain an exemption from the age requirement if they can demonstrate that their service is sufficiently secure," the document states.
For both countries, harmonised implementation at EU level is essential, as national fragmentation would weaken the measure's effectiveness. They point to the Digital Services Act, under which the Commission already acts as regulator for online services such as Google, Instagram and TikTok, as a model that should be replicated.
The document also argues that the future proposal should be cautious about relying on parental consent as a mitigating measure, as it would be difficult to implement and would introduce additional privacy risks.
For the ban to work in practice, an age verification app is essential. Spain and the Netherlands want the upcoming legislative proposal to build on the EU age verification framework, with the app's function limited to confirming a person is over a certain age, to minimize the impact on privacy.
