Home › Regional › EU / UK / AU vs US

EU / UK / AU / US: regional differences

Where your kid’s account is registered changes what defaults apply. Here’s the lay of the land.

Regional guide·Last reviewed 2026-04-22·2 min read·by Lexeprint Inc.
Note. Regulations change fast. Always verify against your country’s current law and the platform’s current terms.

Why regional differences matter

Most platforms apply different defaults based on where the account is registered. An Instagram Teen Account in the UK has stricter defaults than in the US. A TikTok account in the EU has different data-protection rights than one in Australia. Parents in non-US households get more protections by default — but also different complexity.

United Kingdom & EU (GDPR-K / Age-Appropriate Design Code)

  • Minimum age for most platforms is 13 (COPPA-aligned), but EU GDPR lets individual countries raise it to 16. Germany, the Netherlands enforce 16.
  • UK’s Age-Appropriate Design Code (“Children’s Code”) requires high-privacy-by-default for under-18 accounts on any platform available in the UK.
  • Under-18 account defaults: private, no personalized ads, geolocation off, minimal data collection, no dark patterns.
  • Right to deletion (“right to be forgotten”) — kids can request their data be deleted from the service.
  • Children’s Code applies to online services “likely to be accessed by children,” which ICO interprets broadly.

Australia

  • Australia is moving toward a minimum-age law of 16 for social media access (in effect / phased 2025-2026 depending on platform).
  • Online Safety Act requires platforms to have a complaint mechanism and act on “cyberbullying material” within 24 hours.
  • eSafety Commissioner — a government agency that can order platforms to remove content or account. More active than most similar bodies.
  • Content standards, Basic Online Safety Expectations: platforms must take reasonable steps to prevent unlawful or seriously harmful material.

United States

  • COPPA: under-13 accounts need parental consent for personal data collection.
  • KOSA: duty of care for platforms to mitigate harms to minors (state variants may differ).
  • California AADC: similar to UK’s Children’s Code for companies serving California residents.
  • State-by-state: Texas, Utah, Arkansas and others have passed age-verification laws with varying enforcement.

What this means for parents

  • If your family moved or is traveling long-term, your kid’s account defaults may change. Re-check settings.
  • Registering the account in the country with the strictest defaults can help. But don’t lie on age or location — most platforms will eventually figure it out and may lock the account.
  • File complaints with your country’s regulator if needed: Ofcom/ICO (UK), eSafety (AU), FTC (US), state AGs.

VPN and region-spoofing

Some parents use VPNs to give their kid’s account “EU-level protections.” This breaks platform terms, can flag the account, and loses access to legitimate region-specific services. Not recommended.