Netherlands and Spain ask the EU to set one minimum age for social media

On 11 September 2026 the Netherlands and Spain sent the European Commission a joint paper on what an EU-wide minimum age for social media should look like. The timing is the message: Ursula von der Leyen has confirmed she will present her own proposal on 16 September, during the State of the Union debate, and two governments that have already gone their own way on age limits want the rules written once, in Brussels, with enforcement to match.

What the two governments are asking for

The Dutch announcement came from Willemijn Aerdts, State Secretary for Digital Economy and Sovereignty, who sent the proposals on behalf of the cabinet together with Spain. The reasoning is stated plainly: strict rules are needed to make services like social media safe, and until they are safe enough, a minimum age is the fallback. Setting one, the paper concedes, touches fundamental rights, from free expression to data protection, which is why most of the document is about conditions rather than the number.

1. One minimum age for the whole EU, written into a European regulation rather than 27 national laws.
2. As few national exceptions as possible, with oversight and enforcement at European level.
3. Before anything is adopted, the Commission tests whether the measure is necessary and proportionate.
4. Age verification as the enforcement method, on one condition: it confirms only that the threshold is met and processes no other personal data.
5. A European framework for judging whether a service is safe enough for children, with the burden of proof on the provider; the Dutch Children's Rights Impact Assessment and the Digital Services Act are offered as the basis.
6. Services that demonstrably meet the safety standard can be exempted from the age limit.
7. Any extension beyond social media, which Spanish reporting on the paper describes as video games and AI assistants, must be designed and delimited carefully, weighing the extra verification burden.
8. A parallel effort to develop safe European digital services for children, and a permanent place for child protection in the EU's talks with countries outside the bloc.

The number nobody wrote down

The absence of an age is the most revealing part. Aerdts told Dutch broadcaster NOS that 15 remains the Dutch aim, which is what the coalition agreement promised: an enforceable European minimum age of 15. Spain's own bill, which its digital minister Óscar López expects parliament to pass soon, sets 16. France's president has argued for 15. The Commission's expert panel, whose July report the two governments cite approvingly, recommended that children under 13 use social media only under adult supervision, and von der Leyen called that advice very convincing. Estonia, according to NOS, considers an outright ban too heavy a tool.

Leaving the number out lets two countries with different laws sign the same page. It also hands the decision to the Commission, which is the point: the paper argues that country-by-country limits confuse regulators, companies and above all parents and children, because the services do not stop at borders. We keep a running list of countries that restrict social media for minors and from what age; the European rows already disagree with each other, which is the problem this paper is trying to close.

Spain's side of the same day

While the Dutch release went out, López was in Dublin at the EU conference on protecting minors online, held under the Irish presidency. His line was "the time to act has come". He backed the panel's call for a harmonised minimum age, for platforms to be accountable and for safety by design, naming infinite scroll, notifications and parental controls. On verification he pointed to Spain's digital wallet as the model for a check that respects privacy, and he cited the panel's finding that European minors spend up to six hours a day on screens. Spain's national law, first announced in early 2026, is still working through parliament.

What this means for adults

A minimum age is enforced on the people above it. To keep a fifteen-year-old out, a service has to establish that everyone else is older, and the paper's own condition, verification that confirms the threshold and nothing more, is the difference between a check and a database. The EU already has a prototype for that: the age verification app tied to the European digital identity wallet, which is meant to hand a platform a yes or no rather than a document. Its first version was picked apart within minutes of release, so whether "privacy-friendly" survives contact with implementation is an open question.

The exemption clause matters as much as the age. If a service can prove it is safe for children and skip the gate, the incentive shifts from checking users to redesigning feeds, which is the outcome the Dutch text says it actually wants. Whether the Commission adopts that structure, or simply picks a number, is what 16 September will show.