The ministerial statement reflects a growing appetite for an EU-wide limit on the ability of children access social media but stops short of proposing a specific age
Ministers from all 27 Member States signed the Jutland Declaration on shaping a safer online world for children
On 10 October 2025, ministers from EU Member States signed the Jutland Declaration regarding creating a safer online world for minors during an informal meeting of the EU Council. The ministerial statement was led by Caroline Stage (Minister, Ministry of Digital Affairs) on behalf of Denmark which currently holds the rotating presidency of the Council and was signed by ministers from all 27 Member States. Henna Virkkunen (EVP for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, EC) attended the meeting on behalf of the EC and announced the EC was taking its first investigative actions under the Digital Services Act’s (DSA) Guidelines on Protection of Minors by issuing requests for information to Snapchat, YouTube, Apple and Google regarding their age verification practices as well as content rating and moderation policies. In her statement on the declaration, Stage discussed the need for “digital bouncers” to prevent children from accessing services and content at too young an age and urged Member States and the EC to take a unified approach to protecting minors from digital harms.
Support for an EU-wide age limit on social media aligns with Member States’ individual actions to restrict access to phones and services
Though the declaration makes its most direct calls to action in reference to enforcing existing regulation, namely the DSA and the Audiovisual Media Services Directive, the document suggests an interest in further regulation to limit access to digital services for children and prohibit certain harmful design features. Regarding the DSA, the ministers advocate for strong enforcement of the Guidelines on Protection of Minors and discuss the importance of effective age verification practices at length, highlighting the development of an EU-wide verification tool as well as the European Digital Identity Wallet. Beyond enforcing existing age gates, the declaration also lends support to Ursula von der Leyen’s (President, EC) call to consider an EU-wide “digital majority age”. Von der Leyen called for an expert panel to issue advice on setting an age limit for access to social media by the end of the year in her State of the Union address to the European Parliament on 10 September 2025. Though momentum for establishing a stronger age gate for some digital services appeared to ebb in past months, the Danish Presidency of the EU Council has prioritised the issue in alignment with Mette Frederiksen’s (PM, Denmark) call for a ban on social media for under-15s in her address to the Danish Parliament on 7 October 2025. The declaration stops short of proposing a specific age under which the ministers believe children should be barred from social media or discussing whether such a ban should be related to data processing or a complete limit on accessing services entirely.
According to our Age-Based Restrictions benchmark within our Consumer Protection Tracker, a number of EU Member States have already put in place restrictions on children’s access to social media or smartphones. All 9 of the Member States included in our tracker have implemented some restriction on phone use in schools and four countries – France, Greece, the Netherlands and Spain – have adopted or are considering further restrictions on minors’ abilities to access social media, consent to data processing or have unrestricted access to smartphones. Of the eight non-EU countries included in our benchmark, three – Australia, New Zealand and the US – have adopted or are considering complete bans on social media for children and a fourth, Norway, has discussed its plans to introduce legislation to ban under-15s from social media in the near future.
A vote of support for the Digital Fairness Act
Though it does not name the forthcoming Digital Fairness Act (DFA), the declaration references “addictive and manipulative design practices”, such as dark patterns, push notifications and auto-play, which can pose particular harm to children and should be better regulated, according to the signees. The ministers also single out common video game features, including “loot boxes”, micro-transactions and pay-to-win systems, which are all expected to be included in the DFA and face regulation, despite recent criticism that the legislation could stifle the EU’s gaming industry, which is among the fastest growing in the world. The declaration does acknowledge the role of parents in managing their child’s digital footprint, recommending that device makers equip smartphones with free parental control software that is enabled by default for minors. Similarly the declaration advocates for children to be empowered through digital and media literacy programming to take control of their own ‘digital diets’. However, the ministers are clear in stating that all responsibility for keeping young people safe online is put on parents and children, reiterating the growing consensus view in the EU that further action is needed to address harms online.
