Austria wanted to lock children under 14 out of platforms like TikTok and Instagram from January. Brussels has now frozen the plan for a year, and similar national laws face the same fate. The EU wants one rule for all 27 countries, not a patchwork of age limits.

Austrian parents who hoped for a ban from January will have to wait. So will other governments that want to keep children off social media by law. For 12 months, they may not adopt national rules that overlap with the planned EU KIDS Act. Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier announced the pause at the midday briefing on 29 October. He said that “the European problem requires a united European response”.

Vienna’s draft shows how the freeze works. Austria notified its draft law to Brussels at the end of July. The bill amends the country’s audiovisual media law and sets a minimum age of 14 for certain video-sharing platforms. Its three-month review ended only after the Commission had tabled its own proposal. That makes Austria the first country caught by the freeze. Vienna now cannot adopt the ban before late July 2027.

One age limit for 27 countries

The Commission tabled the EU KIDS Act on 17 September. Under the proposal, children under 13 could not have social media accounts at all. Those aged 13 and 14 would get a ‘mini account’ managed by a parent, with limited features and one hour a day. From 15, teenagers could open their own accounts. Platforms would have to check age with certified tools rather than a simple date-of-birth box.

Mr Regnier argued that national rules would split the EU’s internal market. “If you do that, you have different ages, different laws in different member states,” he said. Austria’s threshold of 14 shows the problem. It fits neither of the two cut-offs in the Commission’s proposal.

The freeze rests on the EU’s notification procedure for technical rules, known as TRIS. Member states must send draft laws affecting online services to Brussels before they adopt them. The Commission normally has three months to react. When it is preparing EU legislation on the same issue, it can extend the standstill to 12 months.

Not every national law falls under the freeze. France and Greece notified their bans earlier, and their review periods ended before the KIDS Act appeared. Greece adopted its ban for under-15s on 23 October. Mr Regnier spoke only of “legal judicial nuances” in the timing. Slovenia, Italy, and Belgium have also notified drafts, he added.

Anger in Vienna

The Austrian government reacted with frustration. Vice-Chancellor and Media Minister Andreas Babler said the law aims to protect children from the daily harm that social media companies cause, and “that does not deserve a delay”. Vienna will push the bill through the national process anyway. The goal is to apply the ban as soon as the EU deadline expires.

State Secretary for Digitalisation Alexander Pröll went further. He told the Austrian daily Heute that it was “not acceptable” for Brussels to block national legislation without presenting a finished European solution of its own. The Commission says it informed Vienna in advance. Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen spoke to the Austrian government a day before the announcement.

Platforms will not be able to comply with such a fragmented market, and in the end we will all end up with no level of protection. — Thomas Regnier, European Commission spokesperson

The Commission rejects the claim that children will be left unprotected for another year. “Platforms will not be able to comply with such a fragmented market, and in the end we will all end up with no level of protection,” Mr Regnier said. Until the new rules apply, Brussels promises strict enforcement of the Digital Services Act (DSA), the EU’s rulebook for online platforms. It also urged the European Parliament and the Council to speed up talks on the KIDS Act.