EU targets addictive social media design harming children, adults, too

The European Union moved closer to treating social media design itself as a regulatory problem, not just the content flowing through it, as Ursula von der Leyen tied child safety to the business models of TikTok, Meta’s apps and X.

Speaking in Copenhagen on May 12, the European Commission president said the bloc was preparing new rules aimed at addictive design features that keep young users engaged for longer and more often. Her warning went beyond conventional concerns about harmful posts. She said the risks online included sleep deprivation, depression, anxiety, self-harm, cyberbullying, grooming, exploitation and suicide, putting mental health at the center of the Commission’s case for tighter intervention.

The proposed Digital Fairness Act, expected later this year, would target addictive and harmful design practices and place strict limits on the use of artificial intelligence in social media. Von der Leyen also said the Commission could make a proposal on a minimum age for access this summer, after expert recommendations are delivered. That would push Brussels further into territory usually left to parents, schools and platform policies, turning the question of who gets to use social media into a formal policy debate.

The move matters because the EU is already investigating TikTok, X, Facebook and Instagram under its broader Digital Services Act regime. The new push would widen the regulatory lens from content moderation to the mechanics of engagement itself, including autoplay, endless scrolling and push notifications. Those features are now under scrutiny because they are central to how platforms capture attention, particularly from younger users, and convert it into time on app and advertising revenue.

Von der Leyen’s framing suggested Brussels sees youth protection as a consumer-rights issue, a public-health issue and a competition issue at once. That combination raises the pressure on the largest platforms to reconsider how their products are built, from recommendation systems to alert settings. If the EU follows through, changes made for Europe could eventually spill into U.S. products and intensify the policy fight over whether addictive design should be treated like a safety hazard rather than a neutral feature of modern apps.