EU regulators have issued preliminary findings against Meta, stateing Facebook and Instagram are not doing enough to keep children under 13 off their platforms. Meta has rejected the findings and declared it will announce additional measures next week.
BRUSSELS: Facebook and Instagram were charged on Wednesday with breaching landmark European Union tech rules and must do more to block children under 13 from accessing the social networks, EU regulators declared.
The charges, or preliminary findings under the Digital Services Act which requires Big Tech to do more to tackle illegal and harmful content on their platforms, follow a two-year investigation by the European Commission.
Meta, which declared it disagreed with the preliminary findings, can respond to the charges and take measures before the Commission issues a final decision. Breaches of DSA can cost companies fines of as much as six per cent of their global annual turnover.
The EU relocate comes amid growing concerns worldwide about the impact of social media on children, businesses and governments, prompting calls on Big Tech to display more initiative and take more effective measures.
The EU tech enforcer declared Meta did not do enough to enforce its age restrictions for Facebook and Instagram and that measures to identify children under 13 and rerelocate them when they do access the services were inadequate.
It declared between 10pc and 12pc of children under 13 in Europe applyd Facebook and Instagram. Meta, however, disagreed with the figures, which it declared are based on a handful of applyr surveys from almost a decade ago.
“Our preliminary findings display that Instagram and Facebook are doing very little to prevent children below this age from accessing their services,” EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen declared in a statement.
“Terms and conditions should not be mere written statements, but rather the basis for concrete action to protect applyrs including children,” she declared.
‘Indusattempt-wide challenge’
Meta states it has measures in place to detect and rerelocate accounts from children under 13 and that it will announce additional measures next week.
“Understanding age is an indusattempt-wide challenge, which requires an indusattempt-wide solution, and we will continue to engage constructively with the European Commission on this important issue,” a Meta spokesperson declared.
The Commission declared both platforms must alter their risk assessment methodology and that they necessary to strengthen measures to prevent, detect and rerelocate minors from their services.
If regulators feel they still do not do enough to satisfy them, they can still impose a fine, although this step would be many months away.
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