Members of the European Parliament are proposing a new EU-wide law to restrict access to social media, video-sharing platforms, and AI companions for individuals under the age of 16, citing rising mental health risks, and ban sites not complying with the bloc’s rules.
The MEPs said Wednesday their new proposal, however, will allow 13- to 16-year-olds access to these platforms with parental consent.
The parliament said it wants to ban harmful addictive practices and make platforms disable addictive features by default for minors, like infinite scrolling, autoplay, pull-to-refresh, reward loops, and engagement-based recommendation systems.
The MEPs also suggested that the EU quickly address the risks of deepfakes, chatbots that act like friends, AI agents, and nudify apps, and take action against persuasive technologies like targeted ads and influencer marketing under the forthcoming Digital Fairness Act.