EU KIDS Act

The EU KIDS Act is the strongest Western attempt to redesign digital spaces for minors. It expands “Social Media” into “Social Media+”, explicitly covering online games, AI chatbots, and AI companions.

• The Act flips the burden-of-proof: platforms must prove safety before deployment. For AI systems, this means structural changes such as disabling emotional mirroring and conversational memory for minors. Proving safety for non‑deterministic generative models across open-ended conversational paths is technically unprecedented.
• The Act’s tiered age system (under‑13 ban, 13–14 mini‑accounts with 1‑hour caps, full accounts at 15) collides with GDPR. Enforcing age tiers requires collecting sensitive ID data, facial biometrics, or credit card details — violating Data Minimisation and creating high‑risk youth data honeypots.
• The EU proposes “privacy‑preserving age assurance” via certified intermediaries. Routing public internet traffic through verification nodes introduces architectural security risks and single points of failure.
• If users refuse ID verification, platforms must treat them as minors by default. This breaks adult UX: personalised feeds, night notifications, and open communication channels would be disabled.
• Compliance costs are extreme. Big Tech can absorb them; small developers cannot. This creates platform fracturing: many AI tools may geoblock EU users rather than navigate conflicting child‑safety and privacy liabilities.