BRUSSELS, April 29 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission said on Wednesday that it has preliminarily found U.S. tech company Meta in breach of the Digital Services Act (DSA) for failing to prevent minors under 13 from accessing Instagram and Facebook.
According to the Commission, Meta has not taken effective measures to enforce its own minimum-age rule that prohibits children under 13 from using the two platforms.
The Commission noted that minors can easily bypass age restrictions by entering false birth dates, while Meta's reporting mechanism for underage users is cumbersome and often ineffective.
The Commission also said Meta's risk assessment failed to properly evaluate the risks of minors under 13 accessing Instagram and Facebook, including exposure to age-inappropriate experiences.
Meta has been given the opportunity to review the Commission's findings and submit a written response. If the preliminary assessment is confirmed, the Commission may issue a non-compliance decision and impose a fine of up to 6 percent of the company's total global annual turnover.
The European Commission has recently stepped up scrutiny of U.S. tech giants over the protection of minors under the DSA. In March, it opened a formal investigation into Snapchat to determine whether the platform had breached rules on the protection of minors. ■