EU Proposes Kids Act Banning Emotional Chatbots for Minors — SkimNews
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- EU Kids Act proposed Thursday bans chatbots from simulating emotions or interpersonal relationships with anyone under 18, with platforms facing fines up to 6% of worldwide turnover for failing to build child-safety protections into their products.
- Children under 13 will be barred from accessing chatbots without guardian supervision, and chatbots operating in the EU will be prohibited from retaining memory between separate conversations to stop systems from accumulating sensitive data on minors.
- Platforms running social networks, video-sharing sites, or games cannot automatically activate or pin AI companions and general chatbots at the top of a minor's contacts list — a practice Snapchat had deployed.
- An Ipsos BVA survey across France, Germany, Sweden, and Ireland found roughly half of Europeans aged 11–25 have discussed intimate or personal matters with AI chatbots.
- OECD research spanning 91 countries found children who use AI chatbots for schoolwork score lower on tests than peers who don't, a finding EU Kids Online researchers cited as exposing 'the absence of children's rights from the design of GenAI's tools.'
- Simeon de Brouwer of European Digital Rights welcomed the measures but argued protections shouldn't be capped at minors, asking whether 'we all deserve to be protected from AIs designed to be addictive, from AIs which create emotional dependencies.'
- Australia and the UK are both pursuing restrictions on minors' chatbot access through their social media bans, putting the EU's move in a broader international pattern.
Why it matters: The 6%-of-worldwide-turnover penalty applies to every platform operating in the EU — not just EU-headquartered ones — and arrives as Australia and the UK pursue parallel restrictions, forcing global platforms like Snapchat into simultaneous multi-jurisdictional compliance work on chatbot features.
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