European Parliament Proposes Special Youth Regime and Targeted Ad Ban on Social Media

The European Parliament is pushing for sweeping new restrictions on social media platforms to better protect children and teenagers online. The proposed measures would establish a special regulatory regime for young users, limiting addictive features commonly built into social media platforms — such as infinite scrolling, autoplay, and engagement-driven notifications — that are designed to maximize time spent on apps. The proposals would also ban targeted advertising directed at minors, preventing platforms from using personal data to serve customized ads to young users. The initiative represents a significant escalation in the EU's ongoing effort to regulate major technology companies, which have already faced scrutiny under the Digital Services Act — a landmark EU law that requires large platforms to assess and mitigate risks to users, particularly vulnerable groups such as children. The European Parliament, one of the EU's main legislative bodies, must negotiate any final legislation with EU member state governments before it becomes binding law across the bloc. For Slovakia, as an EU member state, any regulation adopted at the European level would automatically apply, affecting how platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube operate for Slovak users under the age of 18. Child safety advocates across Europe have long argued that existing voluntary measures by tech companies are insufficient, and that binding legal standards are needed to curb the documented mental health and behavioral effects of social media on young people.