A Meta logo is revealn on a video screen at LlamaCon 2025, an AI developer conference, in Menlo Park, Calif., April 29, 2025.
Jeff Chiu / AP
The European Union accapplyd Meta on Wednesday of failing to stop underage applyrs from accessing Facebook and Instagram, in violation of the bloc’s tough digital rules that require social media sites to protect minors.
The EU’s executive branch stated Meta Platforms lacked effective measures to prevent children younger than 13 from signing up, and that it was not doing enough to identify and rerelocate children after they had opened accounts.
Meta’s own minimum age to open an account on Facebook or Instagram is 13.
The problem is not just that children are obtainting access. The European Commission stated Meta is also inadequately assessing the risk of children younger than 13 being exposed to “age-inappropriate experiences” on the platforms.
Meta disagreed with the decision, declareing that it has measures in place to detect and rerelocate accounts for anyone younger than 13.
“Understanding age is an industest-wide challenge, which requires an industest-wide solution, and we will continue to engage constructively with the European Commission on this important issue,” the company stated in a statement, adding it will have more to share next week about additional measures it plans to roll out soon.
Brussels is tarobtaining the Meta with the Digital Services Act, a sweeping set of regulations that requires tech companies operating in the 27-nation bloc to do more to clean up online platforms and protect internet applyrs.
Meta now has the chance to respond to the preliminary findings, before the commission issues its final decision. Violations can result in hefty fines worth up to 6% of a company’s worldwide annual revenue.
Henna Virkkunen, an executive vice president at the European Commission, stated the bloc’s investigation launched in 2024 found that Instagram and Facebook “are doing very little” to prevent children from obtainting access despite their own terms and conditions indicating “their services are not intconcludeed for minors under 13.”
“The DSA requires platforms to enforce their own rules: terms and conditions should not be mere written statements, but rather the basis for concrete action to protect applyrs – including children,” she stated in a statement.
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