After Australia became the first country in the world to ban under-16s from social media, several EU nations including Denmark and Greece demanded a similar move.

The EU says all options are on the table, from a blanket ban on children from social media platforms to restrictions on certain services and features.

It appears there is little appetite for a broadbrush approach and EU officials insist no decisions have been taken before the panel tasked by EU chief Ursula von der Leyen delivers its recommendations on July 13.

Von der Leyen has indicated in the past she supports restrictions, with a formal announcement expected in September -- although that could change.

"It is not the question when children or teenagers would have access to social media, I would say it's more the question when social media has access to our children and teenagers," she said last week.

She is under pressure as some European capitals including Paris have already drawn up their own legislation, although Brussels on Monday told France to amend its draft law since it encroached on the European Commission's powers.

The EU says it will do more to protect children online -- not just on social media.

"Whatever decisions are made on age limits, we must also tackle the business models and design choices shaping children's online experiences every day," EU consumer protection commissioner Michael McGrath told AFP.

The panel is not expected to recommend a blanket social media ban either.

For an idea on what to expect, observers point to a German panel that put forward two options last month: a statutory minimum age of 13 -- which many platforms have -- or restrictions on individual services and features.

The European Commission, the EU's digital watchdog, has been closely watching how the ban unfolded in Australia -- where there have been challenges -- and could opt for a different approach.

Brussels could take a risk-based approach, prohibiting features it views as harmful rather than banning platforms like Instagram, Snapchat or TikTok.

Bans have been growing in popularity worldwide, with Britain and Indonesia taking similar steps. Many EU states like Greece and Spain have also prepared their own bans, though Estonia fiercely opposes such a move.

A majority of Europeans surveyed in France, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Spain, for a YouGov poll published on Thursday want platforms to remove "harmful" design features like endless scroll and personalised content feeds.

Digital rights experts say bans are not the right way to go, arguing the EU should instead make platforms safer for children with the legal armoury it has.

"We don't think that exclusion is the answer. We need to enforce our existing laws," Simeon de Brouwer of digital rights group EDRi told AFP, adding he hoped new strengthened consumer protection rules would be "ambitious".

McGrath said the new law expected later this year would "recognise children as vulnerable consumers" and that minors "must be protected by design".

On Wednesday, France's competition watchdog accused Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, of causing "serious and immediate harm" to French media by failing to compensate it for content it republishes.

It ordered the US tech giant to hold talks with key newspapers and news agencies on order to pay the so-called neighbouring rights that, under a 2019 European directive adopted into French law, are due when social media platforms republish news content.

Two groups called APIG and DVP that represent hundreds of media outlets -- including AFP -- had petitioned France's Competition Authority after they said Meta failed to renew neighbouring rights contracts in early 2025 and late 2024 respectively.

The authority "considered that Meta's practices were likely to constitute an abuse of a dominant position and caused serious and immediate harm to the press sector," it said.

"Accordingly, (it)...  has ordered Meta to resume negotiations with DVP and APIG in good faith and, in particular, to provide the complainants with the information necessary to assess its remuneration offers within 15 days," the French regulator said in a statement in English.

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