European regulators escalated their scrutiny of Meta’s youth-safety practices on Wednesday, accusing the company of falling short of requirements under the European Union’s digital rules for protecting minors. The European Commission said Meta was not doing enough to stop children under 13 from accessing Facebook and Instagram and also failed to adequately identify and remove underage users once accounts were opened.
In its preliminary findings, the commission said Meta lacked effective measures to prevent children younger than 13 from signing up, despite Meta’s own minimum age requirement of 13 for opening an account on Facebook or Instagram. The commission also said the problem was not limited to children gaining access, but extended to risks tied to children’s exposure to content that the EU described as age-inappropriate experiences.
The commission said it was concerned about Meta’s risk assessment regarding children under 13, saying Meta was inadequately assessing the risk that children younger than 13 would be exposed to age-inappropriate experiences while using the platforms. EU officials also pointed to the service terms as evidence that the platforms’ design and policies should not be intended for minors under 13.
Meta disputed the EU’s assessment, saying in a statement that it has measures in place to detect and remove accounts for anyone younger than 13. In the same statement, Meta said understanding age is an industry-wide challenge, and added that it would continue to engage constructively with the European Commission while it prepares additional measures to roll out soon.
The commission said Brussels is targeting Meta under the Digital Services Act, the EU’s sweeping regulatory framework for online services operating in the bloc. Under the DSA process described by the commission, Meta received an opportunity to respond to the preliminary findings before the commission issued its final decision.
EU officials said violations under the DSA can lead to hefty fines worth up to 6% of a company’s worldwide annual revenue. The commission said its investigation, which began in 2024, found that Instagram and Facebook were “doing very little” to prevent children from getting access despite the companies’ own terms and conditions indicating their services were not intended for minors under 13.
Henna Virkkunen, an executive vice president at the European Commission, said the investigation concluded that the DSA requires platforms to enforce their own rules. Virkkunen said in a statement that terms and conditions should not be “mere written statements” but should be the basis for concrete action to protect users, including children.
The European Commission said the next step is for Meta to provide its response to the preliminary findings. Once the commission reviews that input, it can move toward its final decision under the DSA.