Austria

National jurisdiction · as of 2026-09-06

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Austria has no age-verification or age-gating statute currently in force. Youth media protection is a matter for the nine Bundeslander under Austria's federal constitution, so any general content-based access restriction for minors sits in Land-level Jugendschutzgesetze rather than a single federal act, and those Land laws are outside the scope of this national document.

At the federal level, the government sent a draft law to public consultation and to the European Commission for technical-regulation notification on 27 July 2026, which would require platforms that use specified addictive design features, including stranger-heavy recommendation feeds, infinite scroll or autoplay, continuous-use reward systems, or re-engagement push notifications, to bar users under 14 from creating or keeping an account, subject to a child-appropriate area exception; messaging services such as WhatsApp are excluded.

Verification would run on a zero-knowledge, double-blind model that discloses only a yes-or-no age predicate to the platform, with the state's ID Austria digital-identity system offered as one, non-mandatory, verification path. The consultation on the draft ended on 21 September 2026.

Instruments on record

Draft Law on a Minimum Age for Social Media Platforms

Proposed

Gesetzesentwurf Mindestalter Soziale Medien, Begutachtung 27 Juli 2026

Applies to private

The draft provides that a platform that uses at least one of a defined set of addictive design features, a recommendation feed weighted toward strangers' content, infinite scroll or autoplay, a continuous-use reward system, or a push notification meant to draw a user back, must prevent a user under 14 from opening or keeping an account, while remaining free to offer a separate child-appropriate area.

Under the draft, age verification runs once at account creation, using a zero-knowledge-proof, double-blind design under which the age-attestation provider learns nothing about where or when its attestation is used, the platform receives only a true-or-false answer on whether the 14-year threshold is met, and no name, birth date, or other identifying data passes to the platform.

Under the draft, ID Austria, the state digital-identity system, is one available verification method among others, not a mandatory one. Under the draft, very large platforms face a fine of up to 6 percent of worldwide annual turnover for a violation. Under the draft's own text, its provisions take effect on 1 January 2027, and platform providers must meet the age-verification requirements by 31 March 2027 at the latest.

The draft's new penalty offences, its 6 percent fine for very large platforms and its measures against providers from other member states apply only to facts that occur after 31 March 2027.

Age threshold	14
Verification methods	digital id, third party service
Enforcement body	KommAustria (Kommunikationsbehörde Austria, the communications authority), which under the draft reviews and enforces the age verification, with the RTR-GmbH supporting it.

Source: Full text of law