ImportantSecurity & Privacy
Meta isn’t doing enough to keep kids off Facebook and Instagram, rules EU
Meta faces a preliminary EU ruling that it violates the Digital Services Act by failing to prevent children under 13 from accessing Facebook and Instagram, with inadequate age verification and enforcement mechanisms. This regulatory action exposes significant compliance gaps in Meta's platform safeguards and could result in fines up to $12 billion, signaling increased regulatory scrutiny of social media companies' child protection obligations across global markets. For IT organizations supporting social platforms or regulated services, this underscores the critical need to implement robust identity verification systems, content moderation controls, and risk assessment frameworks to meet evolving regulatory standards.
Meta could face fines of up to $12 billion if it doesn’t remedy the DSA breaches. | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images Meta is breaching Europe's Digital Services Act (DSA) rules by failing to prevent children under 13 from using Facebook and Instagram, according to a preliminary decision issued by the European Commission. The Commission announced the ruling on Wednesday after an almost two-year investigation, saying that Meta doesn't have adequate measures in place to stop under-13s from accessing its services, or to identify and remove those already on its social media platforms. A notable example is that minors can simply enter a false birth date when signing up for Facebook and Instagram to falsely declare they're over 13 years old - the minimum age ou … Read the full story at The Verge.