A European Union plan to ban the use of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for those aged under 16 has been scrapped.
There had been a proposal to ban those aged 15 and under from using social media services unless they had their parents' explicit consent.
However technology companies lobbied against the idea, and now member states will be allowed to choose their own limit between 13 and 16 years.
The European Commission and European Parliament had originally proposed that there should be a uniform age of consent set at 13 years, to bring the EU in line with the US.
But late last week there was a last-minute amendment by some states that wanted the age limit to be raised to 16.
The Family Online Safety Institute warned the move could backfire, saying in an open letter: "We feel that moving the requirement for parental consent from age 13 to age 16 would deprive young people of educational and social opportunities in a number of ways, yet would provide no more - and likely even less - protection."
And Janice Richardson, a consultant to the United Nations’ information technology body, warned: "Moving the age from 13 to 16 represents a major shift in policy on which it seems there has been no public consultation."
A new draft law allowing countries to set their own limits is set to be confirmed by a vote in the European Parliament's civil liberties committee on Thursday.
Most social media services companies attempt to restrict younger people from using their services, with many imposing a lower age limit of 13.
The age of digital consent being 13 is defined by the US Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and similar laws in the EU afford those under 13 extra privacy protections.
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