Meta found in breach of EU law for failing to keep children off platforms | Meta
Technology company Meta was found to have violated EU law by failing to prevent children under the age of 13 from using its Facebook and Instagram platforms.
Publishing preliminary findings of a nearly two-year investigation, the European Commission said on Wednesday that Meta did not have effective measures to stop under-13s from accessing its services.
The commission said the US tech company had failed to meet its own terms and conditions, which set the minimum age for safe access to Facebook and Instagram at 13.
Following an initial assessment, Meta was found to be in breach of the EU Digital Services Act (DSA), which requires it to “rigorously identify and mitigate the risks” of people under the age of 13 using its platforms.
The commission said its preliminary findings “do not prejudice the final outcome of the investigation.”
A Meta spokesperson said the company disagreed with the preliminary findings: “We are clear that Instagram and Facebook are intended for people 13 and over, and we have measures in place to identify and remove the accounts of 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 that will be implemented soon.”
The spokesman said understanding users’ age was “an industry-wide challenge requiring an industry-wide solution” and that he continued to “engage constructively” with the commission.
Meta will now have the opportunity to review the commission’s investigation file and make a defense. If the finding against the Silicon Valley company is upheld, the company could be fined up to 6% of its global annual turnover. Meta reported revenues of $201bn (£148bn) for 2025.
The findings come as governments across Europe are considering whether to ban children’s social media, amid growing concern from the EU executive about “people’s homes being flooded by the tsunami of big tech”.
Spain has called for a ban on social media for under-16s to protect children from the “digital wild west”, while French MPs voted to impose similar restrictions on under-15s.
The UK government this week said it would review “age or functionality restrictions” on social media for children under 16.
The commission, which published its findings on Wednesday, said children under 13 could use a fake date of birth to open a Facebook or Instagram account without checking their personal declarations.
It was stated that the company’s tool for reporting underage use was “difficult to use and ineffective” and that there was no proper tracking, meaning underage users could continue to use the service.
“Our initial findings show that Instagram and Facebook are doing little to prevent children under this age from accessing their services,” said Henna Virkkunen, the commission’s chief technology policy officer.
“The DSA requires platforms to enforce their own rules: Terms and conditions should not be mere written statements, but instead be the basis for concrete action to protect users, including children.”
He told reporters that the company’s “weak mitigation measures” exposed children under 13 to dangers such as cyberbullying, grooming or “age-inappropriate experiences.”
Authorities estimate that around 12% of children under 13 in the EU use Instagram and Facebook.
The Commission launched a full-scale investigation into Meta under the DSA in May 2024. Other aspects of this investigation are ongoing; particularly on whether the company is doing enough to protect the physical and mental health of young users.
EU officials are examining the potentially addictive effects of Meta platforms, particularly “rabbit hole” effects where an algorithm feeds young people negative or extreme content.
When the investigation opened in 2024, Meta said it wanted young people to “have safe, age-appropriate experiences online” and that it had “developed more than 50 tools and policies designed to protect them over the course of a decade.”
In a separate announcement, the Commission called on member states to introduce an EU age verification application by the end of the year. The app will allow users to prove their age online without sharing other personal information with the platform they want to access. It can be used as a standalone application or integrated into national government “digital identity wallets.”
While some member governments have remained indifferent to the EU app, opting for their own national versions, a cybersecurity expert said he hacked the app in less than two minutes and that it would expose users to risks. The application is not yet publicly available and the commission he told Politico This month, it was revealed that hackers were using the demo version and a security vulnerability was fixed.
