European Commission rules Meta in breach of Digital Services Act over child safety failures
The European Commission has issued a preliminary ruling that Meta failed to prevent children under 13 from accessing Facebook and Instagram, prompting demands for robust age verification to avoid massive fines.
The European Commission has issued a preliminary ruling finding Meta in breach of the Digital Services Act for failing to prevent children under 13 from accessing Facebook and Instagram. This decision follows an almost two-year investigation which concluded that Meta lacks adequate measures to stop underage users, such as those entering false birth dates, and that existing reporting tools are ineffective.
The Commission noted that approximately 10-12 per cent of children under 13 access these platforms, a figure that contradicts Meta's own risk assessments which the regulator describes as incomplete and arbitrary. Meta's terms and conditions state that its services are not intended for minors under 13, yet the investigation revealed that the company does not have sufficient controls to verify real ages when users sign up.
EU tech policy leader Henna Virkkunen highlighted that even when an underage user is reported, there is often no follow-up to actually remove the child from the platform. The available Facebook and Instagram tools for reporting minors under 13 are also difficult to use and not effective, according to the Commission. These concerns place Meta in breach of DSA rules that require it to diligently identify and mitigate the risks of under-13s using its platforms.
Meta now has the opportunity to remedy the breaches by updating its risk assessment methodology and implementing more robust age verification tools before a final non-compliance ruling is issued. If Meta fails to do so and is hit with a non-compliance ruling, it risks fines of up to six per cent of its global annual turnover, estimated at $12 billion.
Meta disputes the findings, stating it has measures in place to detect and remove underage accounts. The company plans to share additional measures next week about technologies rolling out soon to find and remove underage users. A separate investigation into concerns regarding behavioural addictions in children, launched alongside the age-verification probe, is still ongoing.
