“Childhood and early adolescence are formative years, and I believe we should give our children more time to become resilient in this vulnerable phase,” von der Leyen said.
The Commission president argued that the EU can learn from “pioneer” Australia, which has already raised the minimum age for social media use to 16.
Raising the age limit would not mean that tech companies are off the hook, the Commission president said, as she pushed tech firms to make their platforms safe “by design,” as obligated under the bloc’s platform law, the Digital Services Act (DSA).
Restricting access to social media for certain ages depends on “reliable age verification,” von der Leyen said, pointing to the recently released EU age-verification app.
That app got a lot of criticism for having glaring security issues, but von der Leyen insisted in Copenhagen that it “ticks all the boxes.”