United Kingdom: Media, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment

The European Commission has proposed the EU KIDS Act, introducing comprehensive restrictions on minors' access to social media and video-sharing platforms while imposing extensive online safety requirements across digital services. This landmark legislation will require businesses to implement safety-by-design frameworks, age verification systems, and guardian controls, with particularly stringent compliance obligations for Very Large Online Platforms that must prove their services are safe through independ

The UK government is introducing sweeping new legislation requiring tech platforms to build device-level protections for children and prevent apps from enabling access to or sharing of nudity. With social media bans on track for spring 2027, strengthened Ofcom codes mandating hash-matching technology, and expanded ICO enforcement, these four major developments are fundamentally reshaping how children interact with the digital world.

The European Commission has proposed the EU KIDS Act, a comprehensive regulatory framework establishing a minimum age of 15 for social media access and mandating safety-by-design principles for digital services accessible to minors. This analysis explores how the Act's four pillars compare with the UK's Online Safety Act, examines its relationship with existing EU digital regulations including the DSA and upcoming Digital Fairness Act, and outlines the practical compliance implications for platforms operati