Report: The European Union plans to restrict children’s access to online games

This will occur as part of an initiative to enhance the protection of minors online, reports Politico.

According to Politico, the European Commission has prepared a bill titled the EU Kids Act, which introduces age restrictions for several categories of online platforms. Primarily, it concerns social networks but also affects video services, AI assistants, and online games.

The full details of the bill are not yet known, but it is expected that if adopted, it will introduce multi-level barriers for young internet users across the European Union. For instance, children up to the age of 15 will not be able to create accounts on supervised online games and platforms themselves; if necessary, parents or guardians will do it for them. However, even with an account, they will not have full freedom, and many of their activities will be limited by parental controls.

If Politico’s information is accurate, the bill will be officially presented tomorrow, September 17. Following that, it will undergo a lengthy approval process.

Such initiatives have been discussed recently in many countries. Specifically, similar restrictions for children in social networks and online games have been introduced in Australia earlier.