The European Union has officially accused Meta of failing to prevent underage users from accessing Facebook and Instagram, according to NPR. In other shocking news, water is wet and the sun rose this morning.
European regulators dropped the accusation on Wednesday, claiming the social media giant is in breach of the bloc's digital rulebook - specifically rules designed to protect minors from the wild west of social media. The EU's Digital Services Act, which is about as flexible as a concrete wall, requires platforms to take serious steps to keep children off services not designed for them.
So what exactly is Meta accused of doing wrong?
According to the EU's findings, Meta is not doing enough to verify the ages of its users, meaning kids are slipping through the digital velvet rope of Facebook and Instagram with all the ease of someone sneaking into a movie theater. The bloc's regulators appear deeply unimpressed with Meta's current age-verification and parental control systems, arguing they fall short of what the law demands.
This is not the first time European officials have taken a swing at big tech over child safety. The EU has been on a regulatory warpath lately, swinging its DSA hammer at platforms it believes aren't protecting vulnerable users seriously enough.
What could happen to Meta?
If the EU determines that Meta has indeed violated the Digital Services Act, the company could face fines of up to six percent of its global annual revenue. For a company of Meta's size, that number has a lot of zeros attached to it - the kind of zeros that would make even Mark Zuckerberg momentarily stop thinking about the metaverse.
Meta, for its part, has not exactly been rushing to agree with Brussels' assessment. The company has consistently maintained that it has tools in place to protect younger users, though European regulators clearly believe those tools are about as effective as a screen door on a submarine.
The bigger picture
This move is part of a broader EU crackdown on how tech platforms handle their youngest and most vulnerable users. Several countries across the bloc have been pushing for stricter enforcement, with some even exploring outright bans on social media for children under certain ages.
Whether Meta will scramble to comply, push back legally, or simply write a very large check remains to be seen. But one thing is certain: Brussels is done playing nice, and the era of the EU gently asking tech giants to please, pretty please, follow the rules appears to be firmly over.
