European Commission investigates Meta over child protection concerns

SAN FRANCISCO: The European Commission announced on Thursday that it has opened investigations into Meta over child protection concerns regarding its Facebook and Instagram platforms.

The investigations concern fears the two platforms “may exploit the weaknesses and inexperience of minors and cause addictive behaviour,” according to a commission press release. Another concern is “rabbit hole” effects that “draw you into more and more disturbing content,” a commission official said. The EU executive is also concerned about minors’ access to inappropriate content, as well as privacy.

The two probes into Facebook and Instagram, respectively, fall under the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA), a broad online content law that requires large platforms to assess and mitigate various risks arising from the use of their services, especially for children.

“We are 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 Facebook and Instagram,” said EU industry commissioner Thierry Breton on X.

A commission official explained that a “rabbit hole effect” is created when a platform’s algorithms “feed users with content of a certain type - for example leading to depression, or unrealistic body images - that can foster mental health issues in children.”

Meta may also be failing to use age verification tools that are “reasonable, proportionate and effective” to prevent minors from accessing content that is inappropriate for children, the commission’s press release said. (IANS)

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