Austria

National jurisdiction · as of 2026-09-06

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 bill was not yet enacted as of this review.

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

Not yet in force, as proposed. 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, would have to prevent a user under 14 from opening or keeping an account, while remaining free to offer a separate child-appropriate area.

Age verification would run 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. ID Austria, the state digital-identity system, would be one available verification method among others, not a mandatory one. Very large platforms would face a fine of up to 6 percent of worldwide annual turnover for a violation.

Age threshold	14
Verification methods	digital id, third party service
Enforcement body	Not yet designated in the draft as reviewed.

Source: Full text of law