Child Safety Online: Protecting and Empowering Minors in a Digital World — Report by the Co-Chairs of the Special Panel on Child Safety Online

Key Findings

• — Recommends a harmonised EU-wide access restriction to social media and other digital services 'including AI companions' for children under 13, with Member States free to adopt additional precautionary restrictions on top
• — Treats AI companions as a distinct risk class rather than a content type: 'AI companions represent not merely another form of digital content, but a new type of socio-emotional environment which requires specific developmental and regulatory attention'
• — Names the risk surface for these systems as sexualised communication, manipulation, grooming and crisis-related content, alongside attachment and dependency for users who use the tools for personal and emotional exchange
• — Cites a European study finding more than 86% of Irish, French, German and Swedish teenagers use AI tools, with more than half of those using them to discuss intimate topics and solve personal problems, and reports that adolescent AI-tool users are more likely to have anxiety symptoms
• — Recommendation 11 states that minors 'should not be exposed to anthropomorphic AI companions that imply human-like relationships without supervision'
• — The 'social media+' definition covers services with age-inappropriate or risky features, intermediaries of third-party content, app stores, AI systems posing risks to minors' safety and development including AI companions, video games exposing children to harmful commercial practices or dangerous contacts, and video-sharing platforms

Methodology Notes

Expert-panel synthesis rather than primary data collection: three convenings of academics, practitioners, youth and parent representatives between March and June 2026, with a literature review across developmental psychology, psychiatry and digital-media research. Empirical figures quoted in the report are drawn from cited third-party studies rather than generated by the panel. 156 pages; PDF CreationDate 2026-07-16 reflects typesetting after the 13 July delivery date, so the publication date is taken from the Commission's Special Panel page and its news item of the same day. The report is advisory: the Commission has not adopted its recommendations. The PDF is only reachable through a document-download hash URL listed on the Special Panel page and is not discoverable from the news item, which is why earlier searches for it failed.

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