Brussels warns Meta over failure to keep kids off Instagram, Facebook

by · UPI

April 29 (UPI) -- The European Commission said Wednesday that a preliminary investigation had found U.S. tech giant Meta was violating European Union digital law by not doing enough to keep children younger than 13 off Instagram and Facebook.

The assessment found Instagram and Facebook in breach of the bloc's Digital Services Act because they were "failing to diligently identify, assess and mitigate the risks of minors under 13 years old accessing their services," the commission said in a news release.

The commission said there was significant evidence from EU member countries that about 10-12% of children under 13 were using Instagram and Facebook as a result, a larger proportion than Meta's estimates.

It also accused Meta of ignoring "readily available scientific evidence" that has found younger children were especially vulnerable to being harmed by being on social media platforms.

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The commission noted that guardrails implemented by Meta were insufficient to enforce its own terms and conditions, which state that minors must be 13 to access the platforms, or to identify and block them once they have begun using them.

"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. The Digital Services Act 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," said EC Technology Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen.

Lack of an effective age-verification process during account creation was flagged as the main failing, with the commission saying there was nothing to stop a minor from entering a fake date of birth that made them 13 years of age or older.

The commission also criticized Meta's system for reporting and removing minors, saying it was too difficult to navigate and that there was no follow-through, leaving underage users who had been flagged to carry on using the platforms unchecked.

"This builds on an incomplete and arbitrary risk assessment, which inadequately identifies the risk of minors under 13 accessing Instagram and Facebook and being exposed to age-inappropriate experiences," the commission said.

A spokesman for Meta rejected the allegations but said it was continually working on technical solutions to keep kids off its platforms and that it would unveil new tools in the next few days.

"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," they said.

Meta, which must respond in writing to the preliminary findings, part of a two-year-long investigation launched in May 2024, faces a maximum fine equivalent to 6% of its global annual turnover if the commission ultimately concluded it was non-compliant.

That would be a little over $12 billion based on the $201 billion revenue it posted in its 2025 results.

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