Is the EU Stopping National Social Media Bans? The Legal Puzzle, Explained
| Time to read:3 minutes
The evidence of harmful features, addictive feeds, and weak moderation on social media platforms is too clear to ignore. Following Australia’s national ban, several European countries are considering their own minimum age limits. In July, the European Commission issued a formal opinion to France regarding its social media ban legislation. Does the EU actually stop individual countries from setting their own social media restrictions?
The short answer is no – but it does create a legal puzzle that needs solving.
The Main Stumbling Block: Who Controls the Tech Giants?
While the Commission has clearly stated that an EU country like Finland, Sweden or France can legally set an age limit, enforcing it is a different story. Under current EU rules, a nation generally cannot police tech companies that have their headquarters in another EU country (like Meta or TikTok in Ireland).
This creates a roadblock. Effective rules must force tech companies to act, rather than blaming or penalising children and parents. The EU’s main online platform regulation, the Digital Services Act (DSA) requires platforms to protect minors. The Commission’s guidance on protection of minors serves as a key benchmark for compliance, but whether they give regulators enough teeth to enforce national age limits remains a legal grey area.
The Commission supports age limits, but it wants to avoid a chaotic setup where all 27 EU countries try to enforce different rules separately.
The EU Strategy: EU-wide Age Restrictions and Soft Guidelines Into Enforceable Rules
The current EU framework isn’t fully built for strict age limits yet, but change is coming. The EU is actively working to bridge this gap. Von der Leyen’s expert panel is suggesting in their report an EU wide age limit of 13, allowing further precautionary age restrictions introduced by Member States for adolescents.
The panel is also pushing to turn the voluntary guidelines on protection of minors into binding legal obligations for the online platforms. The guidelines require measures such as age verification for the platforms. Also, the EU is developing its own digital age-verification app to make the implementation of age restrictions effective.
It is important to remember that it’s also a balancing act when it comes to fundamental rights. Any new law must balance protecting children from harm with safeguarding their rights to information and privacy – a balance that recently sent French lawmakers back to the drawing board.
What’s Next for Families and Lawmakers?
In the short term, individual national bans might be more symbolic than practical until cross-border enforcement is sorted out. However, national bans are faster to pass and give immediate clarity, so it’s completely understandable that member states don't want to wait in limbo while the EU prepares its legislation. National bans also generate crucial political momentum. Protecting minors is high on the EU’s agenda, and this pressure pushes Brussels to find a unified solution.
We are dealing with a huge shift in society. While lawmakers fix the legal mechanics, our real focus must stay on the bigger picture: holding platforms accountable, building digital safety skills, and supporting families and schools through this shift.
We hope you enjoyed this newsletter. For more information about SomeBuddy and our mission to help keep our users safe in online spaces you can visit our website.
Stay safe online!
Kaisa Rissanen, Head of Legal and Operations, SomeBuddy
Essi Alho, Head of Nordics, SomeBuddy