The European Commission offered online platforms further guidance on how to protect minors on Monday, addressing issues such as addictive design, cyber bullying and harmful content in a bid to ensure that children enjoy high levels of privacy, safety and security.
It included setting minors' accounts to private by default, disabling by default features that contribute to excessive use, and prohibiting accounts from downloading or taking screenshots of content posted by minors.
The guidelines under the Digital Services Act (DSA), EU-wide legislation that aims to combat illegal content and products, come after the EU executive opened a number of investigations into potential breaches of the DSA in areas related to child protection.
Last year, it began investigating Meta’s Facebook and Instagram because it suspects that their algorithms may stimulate behavioural addictions in children, as well as create so-called "rabbit-hole effects".
In addition, the Commission is also concerned about age-assurance and verification methods put in place by Meta. None of these probes – started since the rules became applicable to the largest online platforms in late 2023 – have been wrapped up yet.
Age verification
At the same time, several EU member states have been calling for age limits to protect minors from dangerous online content.
France, Spain and Greece believe that the algorithms used by social networks expose the very young to addictive content that can ultimately lead to increased anxiety or depression.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron said last month that the country will ban access to social media for children under the age of 15, if this is not done at a European level. He made the remarks last month after a school staff member was stabbed by a 14-year-old student.
The Commission announced on Monday that it will work with five EU countries – Denmark, France, Greece, Italy and Spain – on a customised national age verification application.
“The prototype of the age verification app [...] will, for example, allow users to easily prove they are over 18 when accessing restricted adult content online, while remaining in full control of any other personal information, such as a user's exact age or identity,” the Commission’s statement said.
Next year, the European Digital Identity Wallets (eID) will be rolled-out – which will be a means of digital identification for everyone in Europe and also allows users to store and sign important documents.
The Commission said it hopes to integrate age verification functionalities in the future eID Wallets.
