The European Commission has announced plans to introduce new laws to restrict children's access to social media platforms, following advice from a panel of experts.

歐盟委員會在專家小組的建議之後，宣布計劃推出新法律，以限制兒童進入社交媒體平台。

The proposed rules are based on a step-by-step approach to digital use. The expert panel, which includes doctors and academics, recommends that infants and toddlers should have no screen time, except for simple video calls with family. For children aged three to twelve, the panel suggests that their use of age-appropriate digital services should be supervised and limited in time. Furthermore, they recommend a total ban on 'social media plus'—platforms with AI chatbots and algorithmic feeds—for children under thirteen, as these can harm a child's psychological health and body image.

擬議的規則是基於一種循序漸進的數位使用方法。由醫生和學者組成的專家小組建議，嬰兒和幼童除與家人進行簡單的視訊通話外，不應接觸螢幕。對於三至十二歲的兒童，小組建議其使用符合年齡的數位服務應受監督並限制時間。此外，他們建議十三歲以下兒童完全禁止使用「社交媒體+」——即具有 AI 聊天機器人和演算法推送的平台——因為這些可能會損害兒童的心理健康和身體意象。

Different EU countries have different views on this issue. For example, France, Spain, and Greece have already introduced national restrictions for teenagers, whereas Estonia disagrees, arguing that users will find ways to bypass the rules. Consequently, the Commission emphasizes that EU-wide laws are necessary to ensure the rules are fair and effective against global companies. This move is part of a 'safety by design' strategy. The Commission has already accused Meta and TikTok of using addictive features, such as infinite scrolling, which may violate the Digital Services Act. To achieve this, the EU is looking at Australia's age-restriction model as a possible example.

不同的歐盟國家對此問題持有不同看法。例如，法國、西班牙和希臘已經推出了針對青少年的國家限制，而愛沙尼亞則表示反對，認為使用者會找到方法規避規則。因此，委員會強調，為了確保規則公平且能有效對抗全球公司，歐盟全境的法律是必要的。此舉是「設計安全」策略的一部分。委員會此前已指控 Meta 和 TikTok 使用令人上癮的功能（如無限捲動），這可能違反了《數位服務法》。為了實現這一目標，歐盟正將澳洲的年齡限制模式視為一個可能的參考範例。

The European Commission plans to present a formal draft of the law this autumn. This will need to be approved by the European Parliament and a majority of member states.

歐盟委員會計劃於今年秋季提交一份正式的法律草案。這將需要經歐盟議會及大多數成員國批准。