EU unveils KIDS Act banning endless scrolling, midnight pings and AI ‘friendships’ in online safety push
- ID
- 25918
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 18 Sep 2026, 9:00 PM
- Fetched
- 18 Sep 2026, 9:04 PM
- Provider
- Malay Mail Tech
- Category
- malaysia-tech
- Original URL
- https://www.malaymail.com/news/tech-gadgets/2026/09/18/eu-unveils-kids-act-banning-endless-scrolling-midnight-pings-and-ai-friendships-in-online-safety-push/235645
- Source URL
- https://www.malaymail.com/feed/rss/tech-gadgets
Summary
- Score
- 6.0
- Created
- 18 Sep 2026, 9:06 PM
- Tags
- Audience
- developersai_agent_userssaas_startup_founders
What happened
The EU has proposed the 'KIDS Act' imposing strict age limits on minors' access to social media, games, and AI assistants, banning design patterns like endless scrolling, midnight notifications, and AI 'friendships.' 15-year-olds could create social media accounts independently, while 13- and 14-year-olds would require parental consent. The proposal aims to force platforms to be safe-by-design before children use them.
Why it matters
If you ship a consumer app, game, or AI chatbot to EU users, this proposal would require you to remove engagement-loop patterns (infinite scroll, push notifications at night) and rethink AI companion features that could be construed as 'friendships' for minors. Malaysian SaaS founders targeting EU markets should factor age-gating and UX restriction compliance into product roadmaps now rather than retrofitting later.
Discussion angle
The 'AI friendship' ban is the most novel element — how do you define and enforce the line between a useful AI assistant and a prohibited AI 'friend' for minors, and what does that mean for chatbot and agent product design if similar rules spread beyond the EU?