Recital 20

The years from 0 to 15 are particularly important for minors’ cognitive, emotional and social developments, as well as for the development of their personality, identity and value systems. Scientific evidence shows that certain online social networking services and video-sharing platform services pose a particularly serious risk to the privacy, safety and security of minors below the age of 15 years due to their particular features and functionalities. Ranging from risks as passive online users under the age of 3, when care can be substituted by screentime affecting children’s attention span, language acquisition, and socio-emotional development, through risks of mismatch between continuous exposure to external stimulation and children’s evolving capacities and emerging self-perception, to risks of convergence of developmental sensitivities and platform-driven amplification of content and interactions, research shows mental health impacts and that children are especially vulnerable under the age of 13. Until 15, adolescents transition into autonomy, and whilst supervision by caregivers and educators becomes less effective, risks are increasingly shaped by social elements of digital services, rather than individual behaviours, and adolescents from 13 to 15 are at the peak of developmental vulnerability. It is therefore crucial to ensure that their right to development and self-determination can be enjoyed free from the substantial impacts that the risks and harms posed by certain online services can have on minors. In order to ensure an equal level of protection for minors located in the Union, introducing an EU-wide access restriction to social media+ for under 13-year-olds is necessary. In order to avoid fragmentation of the internal market by diverging national laws, a harmonised minimum age of 15 years should be established for creating autonomous accounts with online social networking services and video-sharing platform services that present features or functionalities that are particularly harmful for minors below that age. This should be without prejudice to Union laws or national laws in accordance with Union law, establishing a higher minimum age for specific categories of content such as pornographic or gambling content.