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EU's Kids Act to Ban Social Media for Under-13s, Curb Chatbot Access

The EU will ban children under 13 from using social media platforms, some gaming platforms, and AI chatbots without parental supervision. The ban is set to be outlined in the Kids Act, which will be published on Thursday, reports Financial Times.

european commission

"No social media under the age of 13. No personal account under the age of 15," said the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen in a speech on Wednesday. "Europe has the power to act. It is us who decide the rules, not big tech."

According to a draft proposal seen by FT, children under 13 will only be allowed access with supervision from a parent, while children between 13 and 15 will need parental consent to create accounts with parental controls and other restrictions like time limits.

Meanwhile, social media companies, online gaming services, and AI chatbots will be required to introduce safeguards to protect children from abuse and addictive behavior, and companies that offer AI companions and chatbots services will have to avoid designs that encourage unhealthy emotional attachments or expose them to harmful interactions.

Affected companies will also be required to verify the age of users with an official age verification app. Failure to comply with the rules could result in fines of up to 6% of their global annual revenue.

Note: This discussion thread is located in our Political News forum with special rules.

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Top Rated Comments

8 weeks ago
Absolutely nothing to do with protecting children, everything to do with state control and micro monitoring of every single thing people do, leading to a future social scoring systems as EVERYONE will be required to prove their age with the Age Verification systems. It is a very dark time for humanity these days and the US isn't far behind either in these ideas.... all those data centre will be put to very good use analysing all the data they will get from spying on everyone. And automating when you can and cannot fly, how much meat you can eat, in fact what you can eat and drink. And so on...
Children will be bypassing these controls in no time. Australia who were the first to try these bans have already said they have utterly failed.

Oh and then we have the massive data leaks of peoples passports and driving licenses that have and are happening from these Age Verification companies, or they are being hacked. It is a criminals dream to have this information, can do anything they want with it.

This is all SUCH a massive invasion and destruction of civil liberties and privacy and common sense even, yet hardly anyone is shouting about it. People will quite literally wake up one day to realise their entire day has already been preplanned by States approved Ai system and you will be monitored in everything you do to ensure to abide by their instructions. Bit by bit they are taking us there... Most of this is printed on the WEF's website, it is like when people said the great reset was nothing but made up conspiracy theory.. yet it was literally on the WEF's own website, in black and white, they have even made an advert for the Reset on it's You Tube channel you can go and watch! But it is just a made up conspiracy..
Score: 29 Votes (Like | Disagree)
8 weeks ago

free speech is a terrible thing
No it is not, just like protecting people who do not have the cognitive mind yet to determine whether information is legit.
Score: 25 Votes (Like | Disagree)
8 weeks ago

Yes, instead of restricting content, ban everyone.
Yeah well, if America would honor the Digital Services Act to prevent people in Europe from being manipulated with false information by big tech companies in the USA this wouldn't be necessary don't you think?
Score: 25 Votes (Like | Disagree)
vegetassj4 Avatar
8 weeks ago
“EU's Kids Act to Ban Social Media…”

Wow, those are quite some talented kids.
Score: 25 Votes (Like | Disagree)
somethingelsefl Avatar
8 weeks ago

“It is us who decide the rules”. Typical leftist narcissist who obsesses over power and believe they can fix all the world’s problems and tell everyone how they should live and act.

That statement alone should bring shivers up every freedom loving person’a spines.

The truth of the matter is, if adults acted like adults and did a proper job of parenting their kids instead of leaving it up to iPads and iPhones, this would be a non-issue.
I agree! Let kids smoke, drink, and own firearms!! Don’t let the state tell us what to do! We should be able to do what we want to do! But when it comes to “morality” laws: abortion, gay marriage, and trans surgery…let’s protect the kids through extensive laws and restrictions by the government. (Same logic you have btw)
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
8 weeks ago

Well, I would agree on this when it comes to adults. But we are talking about targeting a defined group of immature puberty here, the age where minds can be shifted and poisoned really easy as mental capability for judgement still has to be developed. For me personally, I think it is not more than logical that you bring controls in place to help to distinguish between good and bad as these young adults can not do that on their own yet. Hence it shouldn't be the government but the parents, but it has to start somewhere as "society" (comes from social) is killed really fast nowadays.
If you really think this is about children, I have a bridge to sell you.... systems already exist and have done for sometime to limit what children see, just no parents ever bother to use them. And the state are using it all as an excuse to control 'everyone'. You think the MSM is bad now? Just you wait till the State controls what you can watch and read anywhere..

Parents refused to do their jobs parenting, took the easy route out by buying their kids technology and paying no attention to what they did on them. So now the States are using it as an excuse to control everyone.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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