End of recess for European teenagers. Ursula von der Leyen confirmed this in her State of the Union address today. No social network before 13 years old, no personal account before 15 years old. Between these two ages, European minors will only be entitled to mini-accounts supervised by their parents, with restricted functionality. The text expected this Thursday, according to information which had leaked the day before, would also include artificial intelligence chatbots. A French precedent had already tried to impose such a limit, without success.
The news first leaked via a leak relayed by Euronews, the day before the speech. Behind the protective intention, however, lies a colossal technical project: verifying the age of Internet users in twenty-seven countries. The challenge is to do this without transforming each connection into an identity check. The proposed tools come straight from cryptography which gave birth to blockchains.
The Commission President's speech sets a graduated framework for the entire Union. No minor under the age of 13 will be able to open an account on a social network. Between 13 and 15 years old, minors will have to make do with mini-accounts that their parents will install and monitor. These accounts will limit functionality and usage time. From 15 years old, platforms will have to adopt a secure design by default. Ursula von der Leyen also denounced the âaddictive featuresâ of the platforms, without detailing precise technical measures. The information that had leaked the day before mentioned the deactivation of several concrete mechanisms. These included infinite scrolling, autoplay and daily login streaks. Added to this would be calibrated notifications and recommendations optimized for the time spent. Video game loot boxes would also feature in the same viewfinder.
Ursula von der Leyen had already outlined this comparison between artificial intelligence and climate change. It was during her speech on the State of the Union in 2025. She announced the creation of a panel of experts responsible for working on a European digital majority, with the Australian example in mind.
The European Parliament took the lead in November 2025 with a non-binding resolution recommending a minimum age of 16. This threshold could be lowered to 13 years old under parental supervision. Copenhagen subsequently presented a national text banning social networks for under 15s. Canberra was also the first to take the plunge. Since December 10, 2025, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube and X must close the accounts of Australians under the age of 16. Otherwise, these platforms face fines of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars. Meanwhile, Paris is dragging out a law passed in 2023 on the digital majority at 15 years old. However, this text was never applied, due to lack of a European green light.
The crux of the matter remains: verifying age without forcing each Internet user to present their papers. A simple declarative box âI certify that I am over 15 years oldâ does not, however, withstand thirty seconds of adolescent curiosity.
Brussels would rely on a white label age verification application, distributed since summer 2025. France, Italy, Spain, Greece and Denmark are already testing it. Its architecture also follows that of the European digital identity wallet, the EUDI Wallet. The Twenty-Seven must offer this tool to their citizens by the end of 2026.
The system would be based on a principle familiar to blockchain developers: zero-knowledge proof. This process makes it possible to demonstrate that a statement is true, âI am over 15â for example, without transmitting any of the data underlying it. Neither the name, nor the date of birth, nor the identity card number are communicated. Academic cryptography theorized it in the 1980s, before Zcash put it into production. Ethereum's zk-rollups then made it an industry, compressing thousands of transactions into a single proof.
The other method, that of uploading the identity document to a service provider, has already produced its accidents. Discord acknowledged the exposure of around 70,000 photos of official documents, sucked from a subcontractor of its customer service. In the United Kingdom, the coming into force of the Online Safety Act's age controls has propelled VPN apps to the top of the download charts. Proton VPN announced a 1,400% increase in its British registrations in just a few hours.
Cryptocurrency holders know the score by heart. MiCA has been fully applicable since December 2024. The travel rule, this travel rule transposed from traditional payments, requires each transfer of digital assets to be accompanied by the identities of the issuer and beneficiary. However, no minimum threshold applies to this obligation. The anti-money laundering regulation adopted in 2024 will prohibit service providers, from July 2027, from anonymous accounts. Tokens with anonymization functions will also be affected.
On the one hand, the European Union is eyeing zero-disclosure cryptography to protect adolescents' personal data. On the other hand, it is preparing to ban these same anonymization functions in digital asset payments. The anti-money laundering package falls under the Directorate General for Financial Stability. Age control depends on that of the communication networks.
The Commission must present the text of the EU Kids Act on September 17. However, he will have to face the ordinary legislative procedure, Parliament and Council together, which is rarely completed in less than eighteen months. The expiry of the digital identity wallet will therefore arrive well before the possible closure of accounts for those under 15 years old.
