EU to investigate Meta over child safety & mental health concerns

The European Commission will investigate the owner of Facebook and Instagram over concerns that these platforms may be fostering addictive behaviour among children and harming their mental health.

The EU executive indicated that Meta might have violated the Digital Services Act (DSA), a significant law enacted last summer that holds digital companies accountable for issues such as disinformation, shopping scams, child abuse, and other online harms.

This investigation is part of a broader global effort by governments to regulate services like Instagram and TikTok to safeguard minors. Meta has long been criticized for allegedly designing its products and recommendation algorithms to be particularly engaging for children.

In October, three dozen U.S. states sued Meta, accusing it of using “psychologically manipulative product features” to attract children, thus breaching consumer protection laws.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the EU executive said that the Commission is concerned that the systems of both Facebook and Instagram, including their algorithms, may stimulate behavioural addictions in children, as well as create so-called ‘rabbit-hole effects’.

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“In addition, the Commission is also concerned about age-assurance and verification methods put in place by Meta.” The regulator’s concerns relate to children accessing inappropriate content.

The Commission also said that its decision to start an investigation comes of the back of a preliminary analysis of risk assessment report provided by Meta in September 2023.

The regulator is “not convinced [that Meta] has done enough to comply with the DSA obligations to mitigate the risks of negative effects to the physical and mental health of young Europeans on its platforms, CNBC quoted Thierry Breton, the EU’s commissioner for internal market, as saying in a statement.

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Meta is already in the EU’s crosshairs over election disinformation, a key concern ahead of crucial European Parliament elections next month. DSA violations can lead to fines of as much as 6% of a company’s annual global turnover.

With inputs from agencies.