The Netherlands wants one social media age limit for all of Europe, and has stopped saying which
With Spain, the cabinet is asking Brussels for a single EU minimum age for social media, AI companions and games, with privacy-friendly age checks. The Dutch position is 15. The joint paper names no number.
The Netherlands wants one minimum age for social media across the entire European Union, and it has stopped saying what that age should be. Together with Spain, the cabinet is sending proposals to the European Commission for a single EU-wide age limit, days before Ursula von der Leyen presents her own plan for protecting children online.
“We do not accept in the physical world that products for children are unsafe,” said Willemijn Aerdts, the state secretary for the digital economy. “Online, the same standard has to apply. As long as social media do not protect children enough against addictive and harmful content, a minimum age is needed.”
What the 2 countries are asking for
The proposals cover more than social media. AI companions and games are named alongside it, on the reasoning that the same addictive design and the same exposure to harm sit inside all 3.
Both governments put the emphasis on how age gets checked, not only on the number. Verification must be privacy-friendly: it should confirm only that a user is above the threshold, and process no other personal data. Measures should be tested in advance for their effect on children’s rights, including freedom of expression, and the chosen age should be future-proof rather than something that gets revised every few years.
There is also a way out for platforms. A service could be exempted from the age limit if it demonstrates it meets safety standards. That turns the rule into a lever: build a safe product for children and the door stays open, otherwise the door closes at a fixed age.
The number that disappeared
The Dutch position has a number, and it is 15. The coalition agreement of D66, VVD and CDA commits the cabinet to work towards an enforceable European minimum age of 15 for social media, with privacy-friendly age verification, for as long as the platforms remain insufficiently safe. In June 2025 the government also issued formal advice to parents: wait until 15 for platforms like Instagram and TikTok, and no smartphone before the last year of primary school.
The joint paper with Spain does not name an age at all. Asked about that, Aerdts said 15 remains the Dutch starting position. The omission is diplomatic rather than a retreat: Spain’s own domestic bill sets the bar at 16, member states are split, and a paper that opens with a number would be a paper the others could reject on the first page.
Why it matters more in Brussels than in The Hague
A national age limit is hard to enforce against platforms that operate from Ireland under EU law. The Digital Services Act already obliges the largest platforms to protect minors, and the Commission has been building guidance on age verification under it. A single European threshold, written into that framework, would bind TikTok, Meta and Snap in every member state at once, with the Commission as enforcer rather than 27 national regulators.
That is the window the Netherlands and Spain are aiming at. Von der Leyen has said she will set out the Commission’s plans for children’s safety online in her State of the Union address next Wednesday. By filing now, the 2 governments put their conditions on the table before she speaks: a common age, private verification, a rights test, and an exit for platforms that can prove they are safe.
For parents in the Netherlands nothing changes yet. The Dutch advice stands at 15, the platforms’ own rules mostly say 13, and the number that will eventually apply across Europe is the one still being negotiated.
