Von der Leyen pushes EU-wide social media ban for minors

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BRUSSELS — If young Europeans soon find themselves kicked off social media they’ll have Ursula von der Leyen to thank.

Monday brings a key step in the European Commission president’s well-orchestrated push to enact an EU-wide social media ban for young people: the release of an expert report on the dangers of social media for minors.

Von der Leyen brought together child psychiatrist Jörg Fegert and social epidemiologist Maria Melchior to tell the EU how to best shield children from online harm, with months of input from dozens of other experts.

Yet the release of their report Monday isn’t really meant to convince von der Leyen that action is needed, nor that age restrictions are a good idea. As a medical doctor and a parent to seven grown children, she has already expressed her worry that social media is bad for young people and said some kind of EU-wide restrictions are necessary.

Von der Leyen could unveil plans for EU-wide age restrictions on social media as soon as September, four officials said, after POLITICO reported in March that the Commission’s tech department had already drafted a version of the law.

One EU official said Monday’s report is a way to convince any skeptical national governments to get on board and to provide “an evidence base” for any proposed ban.

Ursula von der Leyen gives her annual State of the Union address during a plenary session at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on September 10, 2025 when she first announced the expert panel. | Sebastien Bozon/AFP via Getty Images

It’s the latest step by von der Leyen to take a personal stake in ensuring Europe follows the global movement toward social media bans. When she first announced the expert panel at last year’s State of the European Union address, it caught officials working on the matter by complete surprise, two EU officials told POLITICO.

Opponents of a blanket ban aren’t impressed by the process. “Usually it is better to explain the problem and find hopefully the best solution to the problem. If you have already said that we are going for a ban and we are looking for a way how to do it, then this is a little bit biased,” Estonian Justice and Digital Affairs Minister Liisa-Ly Pakosta told POLITICO.

Global wave

Australia became the first country to impose age restrictions for social platforms in December. Indonesia started enforcing a ban in March, with Malaysia following in June . Turkey’s parliament has greenlit a bill. France is the furthest along among EU countries, with the United Kingdom also forging ahead .

An EU-wide ban requires a far more difficult balancing act among 27 countries. Von der Leyen brought up the issue at last year’s State of the European Union address, an annual tradition where she sets out the EU executive’s policy aims for the year. The four officials said they expect an announcement with next steps at this year’s speech in September, as von der Leyen continues to build support across the bloc.

“We’ve seen that already 14 member states are on board,” Poland’s Digital Affairs Minister Dariusz Standerski told POLITICO. “I believe that we have now a strong majority in favor of those solutions. We’ve heard from a couple of countries which are not really happy about those proposals — however, I do not see any possible blocking minority right now.”

Standerski said more than 70 percent of the public in Poland supports a social media ban for children and age verification in light of some of the content that young people are exposed to. “Children about six, seven years, those kids are seeing harmful content — child pornography, bullying and other crimes on the internet,” he said.

Most of the public opposition is coming from a handful of more digital-savvy nations that insist there are smarter ways to protect children than a blanket ban.

Von der Leyen will make a short statement Monday and publicly accept the experts’ findings. One official who has seen the report told POLITICO that it will contain concrete recommendations about how to limit the harm done by social media but won’t go as far as to tell politicians what specifically should be banned.

Another official briefed on the contents said the report will not give a yes-or-no answer on whether age restrictions are a good idea. It will, however, leave the door open to such a measure, they said, as well as on at what ages limits should be set.

Many of the experts consulted by the panel don’t agree with a blanket social media ban, favoring a more nuanced approach that considers children’s rights. Several, including Leanda Barrington-Leach of the 5Rights Foundation and the London School of Economics’ Sonia Livingstone, wrote a letter addressed to von der Leyen a month ago to warn against blanket measures.

There are early signs that the new restrictions may not work as expected. Australia’s eSafety Commissioner said in March that the country’s ban has been largely ineffective in keeping kids off of social media, citing a lack of enforcement from Big Tech companies. The government is trying to increase the powers of the online safety regulator so that they can bring platforms in line.

Sørine Vesth Rasmussen, senior advisor on tech policy and children’s rights at Danish civil society group Børns Vilkår, who also contributed to the panel, told POLITICO that she expects the recommendations “to address protection and empowerment of minors taking a holistic perspective.”

Poland’s Digital Affairs Minister Dariusz Standerski, who said 70 percent of the Polish public supported a social media ban for children, at the European Parliament in Brussels in January 2025. | artin Bertrand/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images

Capitals with a bone to pick

Von der Leyen’s strong support for a social media ban comes as multiple European countries are already moving at full speed with their own measures. France plans to impose age restrictions by September, while Denmark and Greece are aiming for measures by the end of the year. The Commission has given them the green light to go ahead.

Several key aspects of how an EU proposal could look remain unclear, such as whether Brussels will set an EU-wide age or let countries set their own.

Pressure on the Commission to do more to protect children online has been mounting since last summer when French President Emmanuel Macron made the issue a key part of his agenda . Von der Leyen has also faced pressure from capitals like Athens, Copenhagen and Madrid to do more to keep minors off social media.

“The highest level in Paris” has been pressing for more action, an official from an EU capital closely working on the matter told POLITICO.

Earlier this summer, the Commission hastily announced a technical solution to check users’ age online — just in time for an EU leaders’ call on the topic organized by Macron. The tool was later found to have security flaws, which the Commission claims to have fixed.

The EU executive told Paris earlier this week that it can go ahead with setting its own minimum age of social media, so long as it doesn’t include requirements that wade into the Commission’s oversight responsibility for tech companies.

EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen has hinted that she doesn’t see social media bans as a panacea. “The first priority to make it safe for everybody, and especially for minors, because [the] online environment is very important part of our everyday life,” she told reporters earlier this year.

But given the actions of multiple governments, should the EU fail to take measures, Virkkunen and her team have also come to understand that the only way to avoid fragmentation is to push forward with EU measures.

“We must minimize fragmentation of national systems that may create legal uncertainty or weaken enforcement,” Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier told POLITICO.