The European Union on Wednesday said Meta has failed to prevent children under 13 from accessing its social media platforms—Facebook and Instagram—in violation of the bloc’s online safety rules, citing preliminary findings from its probe, which could lead to fines of up to 6% of the company’s annual global revenue.
The European Commission's probe found that both Instagram and Facebook failed to prevent under age users from signing up.
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The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said its probe had found Facebook and Instagram were violating the bloc’s Digital Services Act by failing to enforce restrictions on underage users from signing up.
In its statement, the Commission said underage users are able to enter a “false birth date” that makes them appear at least 13 years old, and accuses Meta of not implementing any “effective controls” to check the “correctness of the self-declared date of birth.”
The Commission also said it found that Facebook and Instagram fail to take adequate action to remove users who have been identified as under 13.
The ruling criticizes the process of reporting underage users, saying it requires up to seven clicks to access a form and adds that there is often “no proper follow-up” to such reports.
The EU notes that Facebook and Instagram will be able to examine the documents from the probe and submit a written response to the preliminary findings. Both platforms can also take measures to address the alleged issues. However, if the Commission’s findings are ultimately confirmed, Meta could face a fine of up to 6% of Meta’s annual revenue under the Digital Services Act. “The Commission can also impose periodic penalty payments to compel a platform to comply,” the bloc warned.
“Meta’s own general conditions indicate their services are not intended for minors under 13. Yet, our preliminary findings show that Instagram and Facebook are doing very little to prevent children below this age from accessing their services,” Henna Virkkunen, the commission’s executive vice president for Tech Sovereignty, said in an accompanying statement.
The crackdown against Meta comes amid a broader push in the bloc to enforce age verification and limit children’s access to social media platforms. Earlier this month, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the launch of the bloc’s own age verification solution. While announcing the launch, Von der Leyen said, “We are holding online platforms accountable that do not protect our kids enough. The new age verification solution and the enforcement of our rules go hand in hand. Online platforms can easily rely on our age verification app, so there are no more excuses.” The EU claims its app can verify a user’s age “without disclosing personal information to platforms.” However, the EU’s push has raised concerns among privacy activists, and some cybersecurity researchers claimed they were able to breach the new app’s systems within “two minutes.”
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