The Netherlands and Spain have told the European Commission that any EU-wide minimum age for social media should also cover video games, AI chatbots and other digital services judged risky for minors, according to a joint non-paper circulated on Friday.

The intervention comes days before the Commission is expected to publish its own proposal for restricting minors' access to social platforms. The Hague and Madrid want to shape that proposal before it hardens into draft legislation, arguing that limiting the rules to social media alone would leave children exposed to the same addictive design techniques on other platforms.

Beyond social media

The Dutch-Spanish paper takes aim at what it calls addictive algorithms and harmful design patterns. Rather than targeting a single category of service, the two governments argue for a risk-based approach that sweeps in video games and AI companions alongside Instagram, TikTok and similar platforms.

The logic is straightforward. A child spending hours on a social media feed and a child spending hours on an AI chatbot or a game designed to maximise engagement face comparable risks. Drawing the regulatory line around social media alone, they contend, would simply push harmful design elsewhere, or encourage platforms to rebrand themselves to dodge the rules.

An exemption for safe services

The non-paper does not propose a blanket prohibition. It says providers should be able to obtain an exemption from the minimum-age requirement if they can demonstrate that their service is "sufficiently safe." That language leaves considerable room for interpretation, and would likely place the burden of proof on companies rather than regulators.

How "sufficiently safe" gets defined in practice will determine whether the exemption becomes a meaningful safeguard or a loophole. Platform companies can be expected to argue that their existing content-moderation systems meet the threshold; child-safety advocates will push for a stricter standard. The Commission will need to set out clear criteria, or risk a wave of exemption claims that undermine the rule altogether.

Age verification by app

Enforcement is the hardest part of any age restriction on internet services. Spain and the Netherlands say an age-verification app is essential, and they want the upcoming legislation built on the EU's existing age-verification framework.

To address privacy concerns, the paper insists the app should confirm only whether a user is above a given age, nothing more. No identity data, no browsing history, no tracking. The idea is to create a system that answers a single question, whether this person is old enough, without creating a database of verified identities that could be hacked, misused or repurposed.

Whether that assurance will satisfy data-protection authorities, or parents who may distrust any government-issued digital tool, remains an open question. The European Data Protection Board has previously warned that age-verification systems can become surveillance tools if not carefully constrained. France's experience reinforces the point.

The French warning

France's Constitutional Council struck down a national law banning under-15s from social media, ruling that the restrictions on freedom of expression were disproportionate and the age-verification mechanism invasive. The ruling is one reason the Dutch and Spanish governments are pushing for EU-level coordination: a patchwork of national laws, each facing its own constitutional challenges, would create legal uncertainty for platforms and inconsistent protection for children across the bloc.

At least ten EU member states, including France, Greece, Austria, Denmark, Belgium, Italy, Germany and Poland, have explored or introduced national restrictions. Without harmonisation, a child in Paris could face different rules from a child in Berlin, and platforms would need to comply with dozens of overlapping regimes.

Building on the Digital Services Act

The non-paper points to the Digital Services Act as the model for enforcement. Under that regulation, the European Commission acts as the direct regulator for very large online platforms such as Google, Instagram and TikTok, rather than leaving enforcement to national authorities alone.

Applying the same structure to age restrictions would give Brussels enforcement powers and prevent member states from applying divergent rules. It would also concentrate considerable regulatory authority in the Commission's hands, a prospect that some capitals may view with unease. The DSA already gives the Commission supervisory powers over platforms with more than 45 million monthly active users in the EU. Extending that model to age verification would add another layer of direct Brussels oversight over some of the world's largest technology companies.

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European Commission