The European Commission has found Meta Platforms to be breaching the bloc's law by failing to prevent children under 13 from using its social media platforms Instagram and Facebook, according to a preliminary finding disclosed on Tuesday, and could potentially face a huge fine.
"Meta’s own general conditions indicate their services are not intended for minors under 13. Yet, our preliminary findings show that Instagram and Facebook are doing very little to prevent children below this age from accessing their services," European Commission Vice President Henna Virkkunen said on Wednesday.
The measures currently in place to prevent minors under the age of 13 from accessing the platforms, as well as those meant to identify underage users and to remove them, seem to be ineffective, the commission said.
The U.S. tech giant can now respond to the commission's allegations and potentially introduce changes.
Should the commission's findings ultimately be confirmed, Meta could face a fine of up to 6% of its total worldwide annual turnover.
