How old were you

when you first joined

social media?

Did you lie about your age?

In her State of the Union address,,

President Ursula von der Leyen

announced the EU Kids Act,

to make access

to social media

safer and more

age appropriate.

“It is

us who decide the rules,

not big tech.”

Stay with us to understand

how age restrictions

could work.

How ages could be checked,

and what it is

that makes the EU kids Act

so unique in this world.

First, the EU Kids Act

introduces

different age categories.

Think of it as a staircase.

Each step represents

an age group

with different levels

of independence.

Let's go step by step.

Children under 13.

They cannot have

their own accounts,

but parents or guardians

could give

access to

specially designed video

sharing services

through their own accounts.

This way, parents

and children can begin

to explore

the digital world

together

in a safer environment.

Children aged 13 or 14,

parents or guardians

could open mini accounts

on behalf of their child.

These are accounts

that only allow maximum

of one hour of activity

per day,

with parental

approval of contacts.

The idea is shared control,

while teenagers

learn healthy

online habits.

And from 15,

they could create

their own profiles,

but platforms

would still have

to make accounts

safe by design

for everyone under 18.

Like seatbelts in a car,

safety must be built

into the platforms

from the start.

Children and parents

should not have to deal

with the risks

by themselves.

But one small question

pops up:

What about teenagers

who already have accounts?

Platforms must check

whether existing accounts

belong to

children under 15

and disable them

if users are

not old enough.

But for adults like me,

nothing will change.

But now comes

the bigger question:

how can platforms

know someone's age?

The time of declaring

your own age is over.

Only safe

and privacy preserving

tools can be allowed

to verify age.

These tools will

be independent

from the platforms

and certified by

public authorities.

Sounds difficult

to find, right?

Well,

the EU

has already developed

its own age

verification blueprint.

This blueprint is a

ready made, open

source design

that anyone can use

to build their own

age checkup.

No profiling,

no tracking,

and no

sharing of personal data.

Only what is

strictly necessary,

whether they are above

or below 15 or 18.

The platform

never learns who you are

from the age check.

But there's

another question

we hear in the media:

how is this different

from other countries?

One important

difference to other rules

is that the

gradual access to

social media is strongly

linked with clear

safety requirements.

There's a clear

list of do's and don'ts

the platforms

would have to follow

with this proposal.

The EU is changing the game

while building upon

the Digital Services Act.

If you want to know more.

Click here.

To sum up.

The EU Kids Act combines

three things:

age appropriate accounts,

age checking

while protecting privacy,

and a safer

platform design.

But more importantly,

it would also cover games,

AI, chatbots

and app stores.

Want to learn more?

Check the description below

for more details

on the proposal

and other safety tools

available to US citizens,

and let us know

in the comments:

How old were you

when you first

joined social media?