Protecting Minors Online Through Age Verification: How Can We Go Further?
Published on 30 March 2026
Last revised on 3 April 2026
Whilst they have brought together billions of users over the past 15 years, social media platforms are vehicles for major risks: exposure to violent, hateful, addictive, or manipulative content, cyberbullying, the exploitation of personal data, algorithmic manipulation, etc.
In this context, public authorities, in France as abroad, are multiplying regulatory initiatives to protect minors online, often relying on age verification through the restriction of access to these services for those under 15 or 16 years.
In January 2026, the French National Assembly adopted at its first reading the bill aimed at banning social media access for minors under 15. Australia, a pioneer, already took the step in December 2025 by banning 10 platforms for those under 16, resulting in the deletion of millions of accounts. The European Union, for its part, is experimenting with several age verification methods, whilst leaving Member States a margin of manoeuvre regarding the definition of the age threshold.
Yet age verification does not exhaust all concerns and appears rather as a default solution, faced with the failure to regulate social media platforms over the years.
Numerous blind spots remain: the growing usages of generative AI, better consideration of the fundamental rights of minors, structural reflections to mitigate the effects of the platforms' business model based on the attention economy, etc.
Five avenues for reflection and priority areas to go further and build safer digital spaces
- Create a European standard for the protection of minors online;
- Open up platform functionalities, establish a right to customisation, and strengthen algorithmic transparency;
- Rethink the division between "host" and "publisher";
- Consider the diverse usages of digital services, particularly those involving generative AI;
- Strengthen and expand education in digital, media, and information literacy.
Table of Contents
Introduction
I. The Use of Social Media: Multifaceted Risks for Minors Online
II. Overview of Regulations on the Protection of Minors Online and Key Associated Questions
a. What is the scope of application?
b. Which age verification methods are possible and what workarounds are present?
c. What content is targeted by the legislation?
III. Faced with the proliferation of harms on social media platforms, what digital future for our young people?
a. How can we strengthen the fundamental rights of minors online?
b. Alternative and complementary reflections
c. Avenues for reflection and priority areas