Meta Found to Violate EU Law: Failing to Effectively Prevent Children from Using Facebook and Instagram
The European Commission ruled on Wednesday that Meta violated the EU’s Digital Services Act. Preliminary investigations show that the platform failed to effectively prevent children under 13 from registering and using its social products. Meta has been under increasing scrutiny from regulators regarding child safety controls on its platforms this year.
As regulatory pressure on the tech giant’s child safety controls continues to increase, the European Commission has determined that Meta has violated EU law by failing to prevent minors under the age of 13 from accessing its platforms.
The European Commission announced the preliminary findings of its investigation on Wednesday: Instagram and Facebook have a legal minimum age of 13, but Meta has not adequately enforced age access rules, allegedly violating the EU’s Digital Services Act.
The EU pointed out that minors can freely fill in false dates of birth when registering accounts, and the platform has no verification mechanism to check.
In addition, the tool for reporting underage accounts is cumbersome to operate, requiring users to click up to seven times to reach the reporting form; even if someone reports an underage account, the platform often lacks adequate follow-up and removal controls.
The European Commission stated in its announcement: “The Commission believes that Instagram and Facebook must revise their risk assessment mechanisms, reassess the various risks to minors that exist within the two products in the EU, and the specific manifestations of those risks.”
A Meta spokesperson responded to CNBC: “We do not agree with these preliminary findings. We clearly state that Instagram and Facebook are intended for use by people aged 13 and over, and we have deployed mechanisms to identify and remove underage accounts.
We continue to invest in technology research and development to identify and remove underage user accounts, and will announce more supporting control measures to be implemented next week. Age identification is a common challenge across the industry, requiring collaboration across the industry, and we will maintain constructive communication with the European Commission on this important issue.”
Meta can currently review the European Commission’s preliminary findings and submit a written defense.
If the final investigation upholds the preliminary ruling, the EU could impose a huge fine on Meta of up to **6% of its total global annual revenue**.
Prior to the EU’s release of preliminary investigation results, a U.S. court made two major rulings in March:
One ruling found that some of Meta’s product designs encourage adolescent addiction and harm their mental health; another ruling pointed out that the company misled users on the issue of child safety on its platforms.