Meta ‘doing very little’ on age restrictions
The European Commission has issued a preliminary finding that the social-media platforms Instagram and Facebook, both owned by Meta, have breached the Digital Services Act (DSA).
The EU body found that the platforms failed to diligently identify, assess, and mitigate the risks of children under 13 years old accessing their services.
The commission pointed out that Meta's own terms and conditions set the minimum age to access Instagram and Facebook safely at 13, but added that the measures put in place by the company to enforce these restrictions “do not seem to be effective”.
It said that, when creating an account, minors below 13 could enter a false birth date that made them at least 13 years old, “with no effective controls in place to check the correctness of the self-declared date of birth”.
Tool ‘difficult to use’
The commission described Meta's tool for reporting minors under 13 on the platform is “difficult to use and not effective, requiring up to seven clicks just to access the reporting form, which is not automatically pre-filled with the user's information”.
It added that, even when someone under 13 was reported for being under the age threshold, there was often no proper follow-up, and the reported child could simply continue to use the service without any type of check.
The EU body also described Meta’s risk assessment as “incomplete and arbitrary”, adding that it inadequately identified the risk of children under 13 accessing Instagram and Facebook and being exposed to age-inappropriate experiences.
“Meta's assessment contradicts large bodies of evidence from all over the European Union indicating that roughly 10-12% of children under 13 are accessing Instagram and/or Facebook,” it stated.
‘Concrete action’
Technology commissioner Henna Virkkunen said that Instagram and Facebook were doing “very little” to prevent children below 13 from accessing their services.
“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 users – including children,” she added.
The commission’s preliminary views do not pre-judge the outcome of its investigation, and the platforms now have the right to examine the EU body’s files and reply to the findings.
Fine
If the commission's views are ultimately confirmed, it can issue a non-compliance decision, which can trigger a fine of up to 6% of the provider’s global annual turnover.
In response, Meta said: “We’re clear that Instagram and Facebook are intended for people aged 13 and older, and we have measures in place to detect and remove accounts from anyone under that age.
“We continue to invest in technologies to find and remove underage users and will have more to share next week about additional measures rolling out soon.”