Article · Geopolitics · Technology · Lithuania
At what age will a child be allowed to open a social media account, 15 or 16?
Neither yet, because both numbers are still proposals. On 17 September the European Commission proposed a regulation with a harmonised age of 15. Lithuania's Seimas approved a bill with 16 after the presentation stage on 10 April, and it has not moved since. Recital 20 of the Commission text allows a higher national age only for specific categories of content such as pornography or gambling, not for the general account threshold, so the two numbers will not both stand.
On 17 September the European Commission tabled a proposal it calls the EU KIDS Act. It sets the age at which a child in the European Union may hold an account of their own on a social network. The number is 15. (European Commission, 2026-09-17)
In Lithuania a bill with a different number, 16, is sitting in the Seimas. Its author defended it publicly on 16 September, a day before the Commission's proposal. This piece sets out how the two numbers differ in law, and why one of them will have to give way.