An EU plan to restrict children's access to social media will test the bloc's strategy for enforcing digital rules without provoking Big Tech — or Donald Trump. The US president's tariff threats have weighed on the European Commission's pursuit of American companies over the past 18 months, exposing internal divisions over how aggressively to push its new rule book.

Commission president Ursula von der Leyen is set to propose a new age limit across digital platforms: no social media for under-13s, phased access for older teenagers and possible restrictions on gaming platforms with addictive features. The approach is more modest than similar bans adopted or pursued in countries including the UK, Australia and Indonesia, where the age limit is 16, as there are internal divisions within the bloc over where to draw the line.

The measures would hit US tech groups including Meta, at a time when Brussels is already probing the parent company's addictive design features on Instagram and Facebook. Those cases could lead to heavy fines and force changes to the algorithms that shape what children see online. France and Greece have long pushed the Commission to introduce broad social media restrictions for children. But doubts persist in the Nordics and central and eastern Europe over whether governments are best placed to impose such measures — and whether they can be enforced.

Social media companies say they already have protections in place for children, such as Instagram's Teen Accounts, which include screen time limits and extra privacy settings to restrict contact from strangers. The EU's case, however, will be tested by a Trump administration that has opposed restrictions on free speech and business grounds. Trump has accused the EU of singling out US companies and threatened tariffs in response to enforcement actions. In July, after the Commission fined Google a combined €890mn for breaching the bloc's digital rules, he said the EU would pay 'a very big price'.