POLICY

EU investigators say Meta isn’t doing enough to keep children off its platforms

European Union regulators today said that Platforms Inc. has violated the Digital Services Act by failing to keep kids under 13 years old from accessing its platforms.

The European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, said in a preliminary investigation that Meta had failed to introduce a system to verify the age of EU consumers using Facebook and Instagram. If the company doesn’t address the issues and the findings are confirmed in a final investigation, it could be fined as much as 6% of its worldwide annual revenue.

The investigation goes back to wider probe that began in 2024 looking into child safety and whether Meta may have breached the bloc’s strict Digital Services Act. The current findings state that Meta minors below the age of 13 can easily bypass Meta’s age verification tools by entering a false date of birth, while investigators said there are no effective controls in place to check if the details are correct.

The investigators added that there are insufficient tools to report minors on its platforms and when a minor is reported Meta has established no proper follow-up procedure, making it possible for the minor to continue using the platform.

“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,” the commission said in a press release. “Moreover, Meta seems to have disregarded readily available scientific evidence indicating that younger children are more vulnerable to potential harms caused by services like Facebook and Instagram.”

Henna Virkkunen, the EU’s executive vice president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, was more blunt, saying Instagram and Facebook “are doing very little to prevent children below this age from accessing their services.”

Meta disagrees with the findings, telling various media outlets that it is has made it clear that is platforms are only available to people over 13 and that there are adequate measures in place to detect and remove minors. The company said it “continues to invest in technologies to find and remove underage users” and next week will announce “additional measures rolling out soon.”

The findings come as much of Europe considers whether to allow you people to use social media at all. After years of scrutiny relating to addiction, mental health and predatory behavior, a handful of nations may impose a social media ban for children under the age of 16.

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