THE HAGUE, September 14 — The Netherlands and Spain have jointly submitted proposals to the European Commission calling for an EU-wide minimum age for social media, in a move that pushes child online safety squarely onto Brussels’ agenda. The proposals were submitted by Dutch minister Aerdts, who holds the Digital Economy and Sovereignty portfolio, on behalf of the Dutch government. The two countries are making the case together: until social media services meet adequate safety standards, a European minimum age should be introduced.
The Dutch government’s argument is blunt. Social media offer numerous benefits, it acknowledges, but they also pose significant risks — addictive algorithms and harmful content among them.
Those risks, in the government’s view, must be addressed. Aerdts framed the push around a simple comparison. “We would not accept unsafe products for children in the physical world.
The same stand should apply online,” the minister said. “As long as social media platforms fail to adequately protect children from addictive design and harmful content, we need a minimum age.
This should be regulated at the European level, so that children across Europe benefit from the same protection.”
The privacy problem at the heart of age checks
Introducing a minimum age is not a simple switch. It involves age restrictions and verification processes that may impact freedom of expression, privacy, and the protection of personal data in some cases. That is precisely why the Netherlands and Spain are calling for privacy-preserving verification methods — and for the European Commission to thoroughly assess in advance whether the proposed measures are necessary and proportionate.
On enforcement, several methods exist. Age verification requires users to prove they meet the minimum age requirement.
Age estimation works from physical characteristics. Self-declared information is a third route. The guiding principle, according to the Dutch government, is that any method must be both effective and privacy friendly.
For now, it considers age verification the most suitable approach for enforcing a European minimum age — with a key condition attached: verification should only confirm whether a user has reached the age threshold, without processing any additional personal data.
A framework, not just a cutoff
Extending an age restriction beyond social media to other digital services would need to be carefully designed and clearly scoped, the government says, taking into account children’s access to the internet and the practical impact of additional verification requirements. The Dutch and Spanish governments therefore propose a European framework for independently assessing whether social media platforms — and, where relevant, other digital services — are safe enough for children.
Providers must demonstrate that their services meet safety standards, and platforms that can prove their services are safe may be exempted from the age restriction. The Dutch-designed Children’s Rights Impact Assessment (KIA) and the rules under the Digital Services Act (DSA) could serve as the foundation for such a European assessment framework.
Both governments want a single set of rules applicable across the entire European Union. Digital services like social media are not bound by national borders, and EU-wide rules create certainty for regulators, businesses, and — most importantly, in the government’s words — parents and children. The preference is to embed the minimum age in an EU regulation, limiting national derogations as much as possible, with enforcement organised at the European level.
The stated goal is not to restrict access to digital services but to make them safe for everyone. A minimum age should therefore be part of a broader package, including European efforts to develop safe alternative digital services for children.
Once those are available, enforcing a minimum age becomes easier. The government also calls on the European Commission to prioritize the protection of minors in international discussions and collaborations with non-EU countries, so that digital services are designed with global safety in mind and age restrictions can be effectively enforced. Watch this space.
The proposals now sit with the European Commission, and the next signal to track is how Brussels responds to a framework that would tie platform safety assessments to age rules across the single market.
