European Union leaders want to push ahead with introducing a minimum age requirement for social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram.
A digital minimum age for access to social media is seen as important for protecting minors, according to the conclusions adopted after an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday.
Privacy and national competences must be respected, according to the document. Member states called on the European Commission to implement the Digital Services Act (DSA) and its guidelines on the protection of minors.
Efforts to technically enforce such age thresholds would inevitably involve the platforms themselves. However, setting and enforcing such rules falls exclusively under the remit of the European Commission.
Contrary to some proposals currently being discussed in Germany, individual member states would not be able to impose additional obligations on major platforms, such as age checks. Such measures would have to be decided at the EU level.
Decisions on whether and up to what age social media should be restricted for minors could remain within national competences.
EU states also reaffirmed that artificial intelligence (AI) systems that allow the creation of non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material should be prohibited.
Elon Musk's social media platform X came under fire at the end of 2025 after users were initially able to prompt the AI chatbot Grok to sexualize posted images. Users instructed the AI to manipulate photos, for example to depict women in bikinis.
