Servus from bavaria to everyone,
have you actually taken a look at the latest draft from the EU Commission (COM(2026) 681 final – so-called "EU KIDS Act") in detail?
The basic principle running through the entire law is an absolute nightmare for anyone who values freedom: “child rules by default” (Art. 8 para. 1). This means that by default, every internet user whether 14 or 80 years old is placed under a blanket protection and restriction prison, unless you free yourself through a state-approved age verification. If this draft goes through, we will experience massive restrictions in everyday life that cut deep into our personal freedom.
Let's look at the details:
Dictated usage times and digital house arrest (Art. 6 & 9):
Platforms and online games will also be required to enforce strict screen time limits and forced breaks (Art. 9 para. 3). The law defines hard legal lockouts: The so-called "core sleep hours" (at least 8 consecutive hours between 22:00 and 08:00) as well as the respective "school time". In these time windows, access is completely strangled and push notifications are legally prohibited.
The state will therefore determine in the future when the internet has to rest. Even basic device functions are placed under the general suspicion of the state: According to Art. 11 para. 1, essential settings must be completely disabled by default. This explicitly includes access to microphone and camera, location services/geolocation as well as push notifications and contact synchronizations.
What sounds like a "feature" is in practice pure patronizing madness: Platforms and apps may only unlock these functions once the user has verified themselves as an adult or explicit permissions have been given. Even if you want to use your microphone for voice chats or the camera for streams/video calls, the state steps in between.
The gaming situation (Art. 15):
The gamer community and especially the culture of private servers and community-driven multiplayer worlds are hit particularly hard: The problem with UGC and private servers: Many platforms allow players or communities to create and host their own content, game modes, or private servers (e.g., in sandbox games, modding platforms, or community servers for multiplayer titles). The draft requires operators of such gaming platforms to build massive software-technical and organizational walls so that every tiny user-created game mode or private server fully complies with the strict EU rules for minors (Art. 15 para. 3). In plain language, this leads to small community projects, indie developers, or private server operators being buried under gigantic compliance costs and liability risks. Whoever cannot implement the strict requirements (such as contact blocks, default anonymization, and mandatory controls) for their self-built game content will have to block it. That is the death of decentralized gaming culture!
The end of digital anonymity (age verification & ID mandate):
In order to bypass this entire maze of regulations or to exit the "child mode" at all, the only option left is to turn to state-certified age verification (Art. 29). Although they speak about "zero-knowledge proofs" (Art. 28), in reality this means: Without digital proof of ID or state tokens, soon nothing will work on the net anymore.
If I were to list everything here, I'd run out of space or it would become a wall of text. These were the most important points in my opinion.
If you are interested in the topic, here is a video about it by rossmann where he summarizes everything in detail.:EU kids act explained: how Europe plans to ruin the internet
( Link to the draft:https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52026PC0681)
