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The EU KIDS Act is a European Commission proposal, not a law in force. It expressly includes online games, but its proposed age restriction on autonomous accounts applies to specified social-networking and video-sharing services—not to playing games as a general category. For game providers, the draft instead focuses on child-safety design, privacy and safety settings, contacts, and guardian tools.

Does the EU KIDS Act apply to games?

Yes. The Commission’s proposal expressly covers providers of online games accessible to minors. It also covers other digital services, including social-networking services, video-sharing platforms, software application stores, operating systems, AI companions, and general conversational chatbots. For several of these listed services, the proposal is framed to apply whether or not the provider is established in the EU, when it offers its service to people there. The exact scope and final wording remain subject to negotiations by the European Parliament and Council.

The distinction between service categories matters. The Commission says children under 15 would not be allowed to create autonomous accounts on specified social-networking and video-sharing services; limited guardian-controlled access may be permitted for some users over 13. Those proposed account rules should not be read as a general ban on children playing online games. See the Commission’s overview and the proposed regulation.

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What would the draft require from online-game providers?

The game-specific provisions are framed as safety-by-design duties for minors, rather than a minimum age for game access. The draft would require safeguards and settings that address how a game works and how minors use it.

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  • Discourage excessive or compulsive use. The draft calls for measures addressing minors’ excessive or compulsive use of online games.
  • Set safer defaults. Minors’ settings should default to a high level of privacy and safety.
  • Protect contact with other recipients. The proposal includes measures intended to make contacts involving minors safer.
  • Provide guardian tools. Providers would need to make tools available to guardians.
  • Reduce risky moves to other services. The draft says providers must safeguard against a game being used to entice minors to initiate contacts on other services that could put their privacy, safety, or security at risk. This is proposed Article 15(2) of the Commission’s draft regulation.

The proposal describes these as obligations for providers; it does not, in the material cited here, prescribe a single technical implementation for every game. Teams should not treat any particular feature, setting, or product as legally sufficient before final wording and guidance are available.

Will every game developer have to verify every player’s age?

The proposal does not establish a blanket requirement for every game developer to verify every player’s age, collect identity documents, or use a named commercial age-checking product. It does include age-assurance rules and age-appropriate software-access provisions for app stores, which are a distinct provider role from making a game.

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For age assurance, the draft refers to qualities including accuracy, reliability, robustness, non-intrusiveness, privacy, and non-discrimination, and limits unnecessary personal-data handling. That is a set of proposed principles, not a specification of one mandatory vendor or document-check process. The European Parliament Legislative Observatory summary describes the proposal’s platform and app-store elements.

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What changes for games with chat or user-created content?

Chat and contact features

Games with chat or other contact features should pay particular attention to the draft’s requirements concerning safe contacts and risky off-service contact solicitation. The proposal’s language targets the game being used to draw a minor into contact on another service; it does not mean every mention of another service is automatically prohibited. The final scope will depend on the law Parliament and Council ultimately adopt.

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User-created games hosted on a gaming platform

The draft assigns a distinct responsibility to video gaming platforms that let users create and upload games: those platforms would need software and organisational measures to allow user-created games to meet specified obligations. This platform-level provision is not evidence that every small game developer must operate a platform-wide age-verification service. A developer’s responsibilities will depend on its role and the final text. The Parliamentary summary covers the platform provision.

How should a development team prepare while the proposal is pending?

These are planning steps, not a checklist of current legal duties under the proposed Act. They can help a team assess which parts of its product may be affected if the draft is adopted.

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  1. Map the service role. Record whether you provide an online game, host a platform where users create and upload games, operate an app store, or perform more than one of these roles. Do not assume the duties for one role automatically apply to another.
  2. Inventory child-facing features. Note settings, chat and contact paths, guardian controls, usage patterns the product may encourage, and any prompts that direct players to other services.
  3. Review defaults and controls. Identify how privacy and safety settings work for minors, how guardians can access tools, and which design decisions would need review against the final requirements.
  4. Keep age-assurance decisions separate from game-access assumptions. If your product is part of an app store or another covered service, assess those rules for that role; do not infer from the social-account restrictions that all games must block users below a particular age.
  5. Track the adopted text and implementation guidance. The proposal does not settle final technical standards, application date, or detailed implementation. Avoid converting draft language into a definitive compliance checklist until those points are resolved.
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What happens next, and what is not settled?

The Commission proposed the EU KIDS Act on 17 September 2026. As of 7 October 2026, it remains a proposal for the European Parliament and Council to examine and negotiate; it is not yet an adopted regulation. The Legislative Observatory tracks the proposal, while the Commission page provides its summary.

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The proposal builds on existing EU digital-services and AI enforcement structures and describes an expedited procedure under which Commission investigations should conclude within 90 days. That figure is a proposed investigation target, not an observed result or a guarantee that every case will be completed within that period. The final obligations, application date, standards, and guidance remain unsettled until the legislative process is complete.

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