The European Commission\u2019s prospective fining of Meta for failing to maintain adequate safeguards for children is welcome, but the source of these issues remain unaddressed, according to Social Democrats enterprise spokesperson Sin\u00e9ad Gibney.<\/p>\n
Deputy Gibney said:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe European Commission has found that Meta is doing very little to prevent minors under the age of 13 from using Instagram and Facebook. This dereliction of duty is a violation of the Digital Services Act.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis confirms what we\u2019ve known for some time now – that social media companies are not taking their child protection responsibilities seriously, showing no intention to self-regulate even in the face of fines.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn recent years, Meta\u2019s focus has shifted towards keeping our eyes on their platforms, boosting their advertising revenue, and profiting from the collection of our data, no matter the age of the user.<\/p>\n
\u201c10-12% of children under 13 in the European Union are accessing Instagram or Facebook, and the current measures in place do not adequately prevent them from logging in to these platforms<\/p>\n
\u201cThe European Commission has said that it may issue a decision that can trigger a fine of up to 6% of Meta’s total annual turnover. This is a welcome prospect which would compel social media companies to commit to real changes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that age verification is not the right solution for this problem, whether it is introduced by the platforms themselves, a third-party, or the State. Privacy, cybersecurity and children\u2019s rights issues persist in these cases, as well as the potential for children to circumnavigate verification tools.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat needs to be changed lies at the heart of the business models of social media giants: their facilitation of AI-driven algorithms which expose users to harmful content and addictive material. Until these platforms decouple themselves from algorithms which pedal toxic sentiments, images and videos, their mere existence will remain a threat to the wellbeing of children.\u201d<\/p>\n
April 29th, 2026<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The European Commission\u2019s prospective fining of Meta for failing to maintain adequate safeguards for children is welcome, but the source of these issues remain unaddressed, according to Social Democrats enterprise spokesperson Sin\u00e9ad Gibney. Deputy Gibney said: \u201cThe European Commission has found that Meta is doing very little to prevent minors under the age of 13 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15144,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[593,592,7,497,688],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ai","category-online-safety","category-press-release","category-sinead-gibney","category-social-media"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n