I could be wrong I'm not a lawyer, assume everything I write from here is bullshit: but the EU seems to be possibly wanting to do the UK Online Safety Act equivalent starting July 2026:

https://www.mlex.com/mlex/articles/2368265/online-services-get-up-to-12-months-to-apply-age-verification-eu-guidelines-say "Online services get up to 12 months to apply age verification, EU guidelines say" This was in July 2025.

EU guidelines in question seem to be: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/commission-publishes-guidelines-protection-minors + https://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/dae/redirection/document/118226 Quotes:

"[...] the Union legislature enacted Article 28 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 of the European Parliament and the Council (6). Paragraph 1 of this provision obliges providers of online platforms [...] to ensure a high level of privacy, safety, and security of minors, [...]"

"Self-declaration is not considered to be an appropriate age-assurance measure as further explained below."

"In the following circumstances, [...] the Commission considers the use of access restrictions supported by age verification methods an appropriate and proportionate measure to ensure a high level of privacy, safety, and security of minors: [...] an online platform accessible to minors has identified risks to minors' privacy, safety, or security, including content, conduct and consumer risks as well as contact risks (e.g., arising from features such as live chat, image/video sharing, anonymous messaging)"

"Age estimation methods can complement age verification technologies and can be used in addition to the former," (AKA the alternative to a literal gov ID check seems to be big data AI sucking up all user data to estimate user age.)

Perhaps 2026 isn't a good year to move social media to the EU. However, I'm not a lawyer and this isn't legal advice and everything I said was potentially a misunderstanding of mine.