She remembers everything you tell her. She is there at three in the morning. She never judges you, never tires, and always has time.
For a teenager, this is what an AI companion can look like: an app that plays the role of a friend, a confidant or a virtual boyfriend. This is precisely what worries Europe.
What Brussels is proposing
On 17 September, the European Commission presented a draft regulation called the EU KIDS Act, to better protect minors online. It targets social networks, video platforms, online games, app stores, but also, and this is a first, AI companions and conversational assistants used by under-18s.
The text defines an AI companion as a system that maintains a personalised and lasting relationship with its user, by simulating a social, emotional or friendly bond.
For them, it sets out two strong rules.
Disabled by default. On social networks and video platforms, AI companions and conversational assistants would be disabled by default for all minor users.
Ban on creating dependency. They could no longer simulate relationships in a way that creates emotional dependency in children.
The text also provides, more broadly, for private profiles by default for minors, access to location, camera and microphone switched off by default, simple tools to manage screen time, and a ban on social networks for under-13s, with supervised and restricted accounts between 13 and 15.
According to a Eurobarometer survey cited by the Commission, 92% of Europeans believe that better protecting children online should be a priority. The draft draws on the work of a group of experts convened for the first time in March 2026 at the request of the Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen. Few European subjects command such consensus.
Where the text stands
It is only a proposal. It still has to be examined, discussed and adopted by the European Parliament and by the member states, which will take months, and the text may change along the way. Nothing applies for now.
And one question remains difficult, as several legal experts point out: how do you define, and above all measure, "emotional dependency"? Where does a caring app end and an app that hooks you begin?
How to give your opinion
Now is the time to take part. The European Commission allows anyone, parent, teacher, teenager or ordinary citizen, to comment on its proposals on its official "Give your feedback" portal. For this text, contributions are open until 26 November.
Simply search for "EU KIDS Act" on the Commission portal. You can write in French, in a few lines: what you observe in your children, what worries you, what seems excessive to you.
In the meantime, what you can do
Talk about it. Ask your teenager whether they use an AI companion or an assistant to talk about personal things, without judgement. Many do so without mentioning it.
Watch for the signals. A teenager who prefers their app to their friends, who isolates themselves, or who struggles when deprived of it deserves attention.
Remember what an AI is. An AI that "remembers everything" is designed to retain what it is told. We explained what this memory changes. And we recently detailed the limits of ChatGPT's parental controls.
And if a young person is going through a difficult time, Fil Santé Jeunes answers free of charge on 0 800 235 236, and 3114 day and night.
What we take away
For the first time, a European text seeks to regulate not only what AIs say to children, but the way they are designed to hold their attention.
It will not be perfect. But it is still open. For once, you have until 26 November to say what you think.