EU KIDS Act: Europe's plan to strengthen child online safety

On 17 September 2026, the European Commission published its highly anticipated proposal for the EU KIDS ACT - ‘Keeping Internet Digital Spaces Accountable and Trustworthy’ (EU KIDS Act).

At a time when governments, states and regulators around the world are prioritising children’s online safety, the European Commission’s President commented in a statement how "now it is time for the European Union to act". This proposal follows the existing Digital Services Act (DSA), EU AI Act and the proposed Digital Fairness Act (DFA).

This article examines the four pillars of the EU KIDS Act, what it means for the broader EU digital regulatory landscape, how it compares and interacts with the UK's Online Safety Act, and what all of this means in practice for our clients in scope of the Act.

What is the EU KIDS Act?

The EU KIDS Act is built around four pillars – social media delay; safety by design; age assurance and parental responsibility; and strong enforcement. It will apply to social media, video-sharing platforms, online games, AI chatbots or companions, app stores and operating systems (described as "Social Media+" services).

How does the EU KIDS Act complement the Digital Services Act?

The EU regulatory framework already includes comprehensive safeguards for children online when using social media, streaming services, online games, online retailers and AI products. The DSA requires online platforms to keep minors safe when considering the core design choices of their services as suggested in the Commission’s guidelines for the protection of minors.

However, the EU KIDS Act goes much further by specifying a minimum age for access to platforms and services, banning common problematic features such as endless scrolling, excess notifications or harmful recommender systems, and addressing addictive design features for digital products and services accessible to minors.

This layered approach matters for clients with existing DSA compliance programmes: the EU KIDS Act does not require a parallel infrastructure, but it does significantly raise the bar on what compliance means in practice, particularly for services where minors are or may be active users.

The Digital Fairness Act: A complementary (and overlapping) horizon

The EU KIDS Act Explanatory Memorandum states that the upcoming Digital Fairness Act (DFA) will be developed 'in full alignment with the obligations in this Regulation', indicating that the Commission intends the DFA to complement and reinforce the KIDS Act's child protection framework from a consumer law perspective, rather than the reverse.

For more information on the DFA, take a look at our published guide "The Digital Fairness Act: Getting ready for the next wave of EU consumer regulation".

How the EU KIDS Act compares with the UK's Online Safety Act

For clients operating across both the EU and UK there are a number of similarities between the EU KIDS Act and the UK's Online Safety Act 2023 (OSA) which will enable clients to leverage some compliance work already undertaken. These include:

• Age assurance being a foundational control rather than a supplementary measure in both regimes.
• Safety by design in which service design itself is the primary compliance obligation. The EU KIDS Act reverses the burden of proof so that services must prove they are safe before children can access them. The OSA similarly establishes a duty of care framework where providers must demonstrate their risk assessments and safety measures are adequate, rather than waiting for harm to be proved.
• Both regimes extend obligations beyond the traditional "social network" category.

The legal models of each regime, however, differ fundamentally, in that:

• The EU KIDS Act is a single, directly applicable Regulation that imposes harmonised rules across all Member States. The OSA is a framework statute that delegates significant detail to Ofcom through Codes of Practice, leaving more room for risk-based proportionality in implementation.
• The EU KIDS Act sets 15 as the minimum age for autonomous account creation. The OSA does not set an equivalent "social media minimum age".

For clients operating globally, the practical challenge is whether it is possible to build a single product architecture that satisfies both UK and EU regimes as well as other global frameworks. The areas of potential friction may include:

• Age assurance infrastructure: Platforms will need to consider whether a single verification solution can serve the different markets or whether separate solutions are required.
• Design obligations: A platform that is designed to comply with EU law as proposed will almost certainly also satisfy UK requirements, but the reverse may not always be true.
• Evidence and documentation: Harmonising the documentary and governance obligations into a single "proof-of-safety" governance framework applicable across both regimes is achievable but requires deliberate design.
• AI companions and chatbots: The EU KIDS Act's specific emotional-dependency and memory restrictions for AI companions have no direct equivalent in the UK OSA as currently drafted. Clients in this space face an EU-specific design challenge that will require attention independently of UK compliance.

What comes next?

At this point, the EU KIDS Act is a proposal for a Regulation and has not yet been formally adopted into law. It will now be examined by both the European Parliament and the Council of the EU who will negotiate and decide on the final text before it becomes law. Whilst there is a sense of urgency about getting this legislation passed, commentary suggests that final adoption before 2028 is unlikely.

Meanwhile in the UK, the Secretary of State for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport confirmed earlier this month that the government is on track for an under-16 social media ban in spring 2027 and whilst any ban will produce further legislation, a lot of what is planned under this ban aligns with what is set out in the EU KIDS Act.

If you need any support in preparing for these new rules, please get in touch with one of the contacts below.

This publication is intended for general guidance and represents our understanding of the relevant law and practice as at September 2026.  For more information see our terms & conditions.