The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, proposes to ban children under the age of 13 from using social networks, online games and chatbots. He announced this on September 16 in Strasbourg, delivering the annual address "On the State of the European Union". "We do not have to tolerate addictive functions and the fact that children are drawn into more and more extreme content," emphasized von der Leyen. He also referred to the issue of the distribution of sexualized photos of girls generated by artificial intelligence. According to the head of the European Commission, it is planned to create special "mini-accounts" for children aged 13-15, the use of which will be controlled by parents or guardians. At the heart of this initiative are the recommendations of a special expert group on the safety of children on the Internet, which von der Leyen formed in 2026. In July, the group recommended banning access to social networks by under-13s and tightening the responsibility of online platforms to ensure the safety of minors. Now the EU member states have to discuss the proposal. The initiative is part of a broader discussion on the regulation of digital platforms and the protection of children online. Some European countries already have or are considering their own age restrictions, although some of them face legal hurdles. After von der Leyen's speech, Manfred Weber, the leader of the largest group in the Council of Europe, proposed to give users the opportunity to turn off the algorithms of social networks at will.