EU Opens Child Safety Probes of Facebook and Instagram, Citing Addictive Design Concerns (techcrunch.com) 48
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Facebook and Instagram are under formal investigation in the European Union over child protection concerns, the Commission announced Thursday. The proceedings follow a raft of requests for information to parent entity Meta since the bloc's online governance regime, the Digital Services Act (DSA), started applying last August. The development could be significant as the formal proceedings unlock additional investigatory powers for EU enforcers, such as the ability to conduct office inspections or apply interim measures. Penalties for any confirmed breaches of the DSA could reach up to 6% of Meta's global annual turnover.
Meta's two social networks are designated as very large online platforms (VLOPs) under the DSA. This means the company faces an extra set of rules -- overseen by the EU directly -- requiring it to assess and mitigate systemic risks on Facebook and Instagram, including in areas like minors' mental health. In a briefing with journalists, senior Commission officials said they suspect Meta of failing to properly assess and mitigate risks affecting children. They particularly highlighted concerns about addictive design on its social networks, and what they referred to as a "rabbit hole effect," where a minor watching one video may be pushed to view more similar content as a result of the platforms' algorithmic content recommendation engines.
Commission officials gave examples of depression content, or content that promotes an unhealthy body image, as types of content that could have negative impacts on minors' mental health. They are also concerned that the age assurance methods Meta uses may be too easy for kids to circumvent. "One of the underlying questions of all of these grievances is how can we be sure who accesses the service and how effective are the age gates -- particularly for avoiding that underage users access the service," said a senior Commission official briefing press today on background. "This is part of our investigation now to check the effectiveness of the measures that Meta has put in place in this regard as well." In all, the EU suspects Meta of infringing DSA Articles 28, 34, and 35. The Commission will now carry out an in-depth investigation of the two platforms' approach to child protection.
Meta's two social networks are designated as very large online platforms (VLOPs) under the DSA. This means the company faces an extra set of rules -- overseen by the EU directly -- requiring it to assess and mitigate systemic risks on Facebook and Instagram, including in areas like minors' mental health. In a briefing with journalists, senior Commission officials said they suspect Meta of failing to properly assess and mitigate risks affecting children. They particularly highlighted concerns about addictive design on its social networks, and what they referred to as a "rabbit hole effect," where a minor watching one video may be pushed to view more similar content as a result of the platforms' algorithmic content recommendation engines.
Commission officials gave examples of depression content, or content that promotes an unhealthy body image, as types of content that could have negative impacts on minors' mental health. They are also concerned that the age assurance methods Meta uses may be too easy for kids to circumvent. "One of the underlying questions of all of these grievances is how can we be sure who accesses the service and how effective are the age gates -- particularly for avoiding that underage users access the service," said a senior Commission official briefing press today on background. "This is part of our investigation now to check the effectiveness of the measures that Meta has put in place in this regard as well." In all, the EU suspects Meta of infringing DSA Articles 28, 34, and 35. The Commission will now carry out an in-depth investigation of the two platforms' approach to child protection.
Just call it for what it is... (Score:2, Insightful)
That should be the headline.
(and downvoting me as troll does not change this fact)
Re:Just call it for what it is... (Score:4, Insightful)
EUSSR wants more money from American companies, "for the children"... That should be the headline. (and downvoting me as troll does not change this fact)
They're just watching American politicians. We seem to be able to shove through all kinds of egregiously transparent rights trampling laws if our lawmakers just take the podium and breathlessly whisper, "Think of the children," breathlessly while clutching their chest.
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They're just watching American politicians. We seem to be able to shove through all kinds of egregiously transparent rights trampling laws if our lawmakers just take the podium and breathlessly whisper, "Think of the children," breathlessly while clutching their chest.
Right.... No chance there could actually be a possibility that these companies are making their apps addictive as possible.
I don't understand how the majority of people on Slashdot can hold two opposing views at the same time... Corporations are evil! Hands off our corporations!
Y'all are clowns.
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They're just watching American politicians. We seem to be able to shove through all kinds of egregiously transparent rights trampling laws if our lawmakers just take the podium and breathlessly whisper, "Think of the children," breathlessly while clutching their chest.
Right.... No chance there could actually be a possibility that these companies are making their apps addictive as possible.
I don't understand how the majority of people on Slashdot can hold two opposing views at the same time... Corporations are evil! Hands off our corporations!
Y'all are clowns.
So, this changes the fine being a classic EU shakedown for money how exactly? If those EU assholes cared about the children oh-so-much they'd work to create clear regulation setting boundaries on that, and not extort blood money from evildoers.
Because all that's going to happen as a result of this is Facebook will pay its fine, then continue business exactly as it did, so the effect on children is exactly zero.
And I know that, you know that, I know that you know, the EU assholes know that perfectly well
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It changes it because no money is being demanded, you goober. READ THE FUCKING ARTICLE. Is that too much to ask of you clowns? They are opening a PROBE. I.e. They're investigating allegations that it is addictive. And they are investigating allegations that Instagram and Facebook have violated EU law.
Where is the money you think is being demanded?
Part of any due-diligence on the part of the EU is to first start with an investigation. If they issue fines, then at least your claims will have some mer
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It changes it because no money is being demanded, you goober. READ THE FUCKING ARTICLE. Is that too much to ask of you clowns? They are opening a PROBE. I.e. They're investigating allegations that it is addictive. And they are investigating allegations that Instagram and Facebook have violated EU law.
Where is the money you think is being demanded?
Part of any due-diligence on the part of the EU is to first start with an investigation. If they issue fines, then at least your claims will have some merit.
OK. Wanna bet on what the outcome of this probe is going to be? As in, bet real actual money? No of course you won't because you know perfectly well. A fine. So wipe the spittle from your monitor, adults are talking here about what we already know is really going to happen.
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You seem to be really triggered that the EU might fine companies that have been found to have broken the law.
It's unclear what you think the purpose of the laws are if its unacceptable to enforce them...
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You seem to be really triggered that the EU might fine companies that have been found to have broken the law.
It's unclear what you think the purpose of the laws are if its unacceptable to enforce them...
You know perfectly well that any laws that are going to be applied here are vague, and could mean anything. And the thought process of said "probe" is going to be "are they a US company! YES they are! Do we hate them? YES we do! Let's fuck them up!", and not anything resembling a legal proceeding.
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Do I know that? I'm fairly sure I don't know the weird conspiracies in your head.
Your idea of what a probe is also seems detached from reality and history.
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No, I don't know that.
I know it's your opinion, but as a fact, no I certainly do not know it.
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OK. Wanna bet on what the outcome of this probe is going to be? As in, bet real actual money? No of course you won't because you know perfectly well. A fine. So wipe the spittle from your monitor, adults are talking here about what we already know is really going to happen.
It will probably result in a fine and an order to change their practices. That's ALWAYS the way it is. Western governments don't order fines without also ordering the entity to correct the breach of law.
You should know this, but you're too wrapped up in your hysteria and tunnel vision. Can you point to any fines the EU has issued where they didn't also order the company to modify it's practices?
Contrary to what many of you seem to believe, governments don't like being ignored. Orders to abate typic
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And also, sorry kiddo, you lost the right to decide who's an adult and who's not
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Give me a break. You're the clown pretending to know the future. You have got the slightest effing idea what the EU is going to require / demand. Unless you're sitting on the EU council, you're just pulling stuff out of your ass.
Adults don't live in fantasy land and adults don't claim to know the future. You're a petulant child having a tantrum.
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Give me a break. You're the clown pretending to know the future. You have got the slightest effing idea what the EU is going to require / demand. Unless you're sitting on the EU council, you're just pulling stuff out of your ass.
Adults don't live in fantasy land and adults don't claim to know the future. You're a petulant child having a tantrum.
Kid, you are on the record here having yourself already admitted that more likely than not it's exactly what's gonna happen, and now are trying to backtrack on that. Go grab a lollipop and stick to that, because you're not fooling anyone here.
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Kid, you are on the record here having yourself already admitted that more likely than not it's exactly what's gonna happen,
So now you're going to resort to bald-faced lies? I said:
It will probably result in a fine and an order to change their practices. "
You, on the other hand said:
Because all that's going to happen as a result of this is Facebook will pay its fine, then continue business exactly as it did, so the effect on children is exactly zero.
.
Like that's ever what happens. Company is fined for practice XYZ. Company pays fine. Company tells EU to go fuck itself and goes right back to doing what it was doing.
Oh wait.. That's not what happens... I challenged you to show me any example of the EU fining a company without requiring some type of abatement of practice. Instead you simply lie about what I said..
For the record, I'm probably twice your age. J
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For the record, I'm now fairly certain you could be the poster-child for a new campaign warning folks that "anal sex can lead to pregnancy".
Aww, who's an angry, little, pessimistic, butt-baby? You are! Yes you are!
Most of your kind end up as lawyers. What happened to you?
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From that perspective, it's no surprise that the people are fickle. Like all serfs in contested territory, they support whatever sovereign aligns with their needs at a given moment, and
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They're just watching American politicians. We seem to be able to shove through all kinds of egregiously transparent rights trampling laws if our lawmakers just take the podium and breathlessly whisper, "Think of the children," breathlessly while clutching their chest.
Right.... No chance there could actually be a possibility that these companies are making their apps addictive as possible.
I don't understand how the majority of people on Slashdot can hold two opposing views at the same time... Corporations are evil! Hands off our corporations!
Y'all are clowns.
Hey, I'm all for cracking down on corporations. I just wish the politicians would stop using the breathless "for the children" mantra. 99.99% of the time in America it's absolute nonsense meant to further a completely different agenda, and it's become so common that it always comes of as disingenuous.
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Hey, I'm all for cracking down on corporations. I just wish the politicians would stop using the breathless "for the children" mantra. 99.99% of the time in America it's absolute nonsense meant to further a completely different agenda, and it's become so common that it always comes of as disingenuous.
Except that it's been primarily children who have been targeted by Instagram and others. Kids.... Those tiny people whose brains have not yet fully developed and are most vulnerable to manipulation. Facebook, Tik-Tok, Instagram.. All of them have had serious accusations levied at them from non-politicians (primarily researchers) who claim their apps are being designed to be addictive to kids.
Jesus H. Christ, what are they supposed to say when it is about the kids?
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Hey, I'm all for cracking down on corporations. I just wish the politicians would stop using the breathless "for the children" mantra. 99.99% of the time in America it's absolute nonsense meant to further a completely different agenda, and it's become so common that it always comes of as disingenuous.
Except that it's been primarily children who have been targeted by Instagram and others. Kids.... Those tiny people whose brains have not yet fully developed and are most vulnerable to manipulation. Facebook, Tik-Tok, Instagram.. All of them have had serious accusations levied at them from non-politicians (primarily researchers) who claim their apps are being designed to be addictive to kids.
Jesus H. Christ, what are they supposed to say when it is about the kids?
Parents need to parent? I mean, I know that type of talk typically throws the modern adult into spasms of apoplectic shock, but maybe kids don't need to be on the electronic babysitter without supervision 24/7. Maybe we shouldn't work parents to the point where they have no energy for parenting? Maybe we should allow them to actually have time to be parents, if we expect to have new generations of kids that aren't just little corporate drones programmed to follow whatever the electronic leash taught them t
Re:Just call it for what it is... (Score:5, Insightful)
You don't admit the possibility that Facebook and Instagram could actually be evil?
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You don't admit the possibility that Facebook and Instagram could actually be evil?
What? No. They are American. They are the embodiment of freedom. Putting Instagram on the internet is just exporting superior American society to a crazy dystopian world. The EUSSR could desperately use some good ol' American democracy. Just look at their health system. They do that socialism thing there and look where they got them. The people are tiny, not grand like the Americans. We drive big trucks, we wear big pants with big belts to hold up the big pants. Like a real country.
Those commies huffing awa
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EUSSR wants more money from American companies, "for the children"...
That should be the headline. (and downvoting me as troll does not change this fact)
Yes, sad to say that sometimes +5 insightful ends up modded as troll.
The European union extracts money, and doesn't create much at all.
If you really want to "protect the children" Why on earth would you try to profit off it? You dobad things to our most precious priduct - children. Now give us money.
Like you, I just described the exact definition >of their approach
If Facebook is provably harming children, and the EU does not want children harmed, they should not try to profit, but block Faceboo
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So yeah, we might well be inspiring others to put in geo blocks, and we might have a very much cut-down version of $social_media site in future. You know what? We want it that way. You can keep your "once you're in, you've got the entire spectrum of content from pretty rainbows all the way down the most depraved things humans can do to each other" services. Enjoy exercising your freedom to try to guide your kids through all that lot.
Funny, getting a lecture from a European about the most depraved things humans can do to each other.
Sardonic mode off
Which begs the question - why do you not have a harmless social media offering? It isn't that hard to do. Just set up some pretty simple software, then hire as many censors as needed to protect the children. You can implement a strike rule as strict as you like. Then you geoblock the USA. Comp,letely - a European internet based on European mores. Problem fixed. You just created jobs for E
Re:Just call it for what it is... (Score:5, Insightful)
1) If they wanted the money, they'd just create a tax. That's how these things works, it's a secure and predictable amount, it can be updated every year, much better business than trying apply once-in-a-decade fines that more often than not are struck down by courts.
2) Your statement cannot represent a fact. A fact is something that can be confirmed by observation. Your statement ascribes to them "wants", which is an intention, which you cannot observe as fact except if they have said so (which they have not done).
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1) If they wanted the money, they'd just create a tax. That's how these things works, it's a secure and predictable amount, it can be updated every year, much better business than trying apply once-in-a-decade fines that more often than not are struck down by courts.
But then EU subjects would have to pay it too, so it doesn't quite have the "fuck the US" vibes they oh-so-love there and protectionist effects that his thing has.
2) Your statement cannot represent a fact. A fact is something that can be confirmed by observation. Your statement ascribes to them "wants", which is an intention, which you cannot observe as fact except if they have said so (which they have not done).
No, the effect of your ability to observe a fact does jack shit to its status. Reality is something that does not go away once you stop looking at it.
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Your statement ascribes to them "wants", which is an intention, which you cannot observe as fact except if they have said so (which they have not done).
People way smarter than you or me have solved that problem a long time ago. Courts determine intent (even past intent) based on observable actions. This is especially true in murder cases: someone pointing a gun at another's head and firing the trigger is a pretty good indication that the murderer intended to kill, even though they say it's just an accident.
Here, we observe that the EUSSR, like they did in the past, open an investigation into a wealthy foreign entity, and we know from the past that their
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It's a lot easier than accomplishing something themselves.
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Are you a complete moron? Study after study has shown these companies are deliberately making the apps addictive. Jesus H. Christ, just fucking look around... Every kid with a phone has their face buried in it all day.
According to a 2023 Baylor study, 28% of Instagram users meet the diagnostic criteria for addiction. A 2024 study published in the Journal of Behavioral Addictions found that 33.5% of participants had high-risk Instagram use, with 26.5% showing mild addiction, 6.1% moderate addiction, and
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Are you a complete moron? Study after study has shown these companies are deliberately making the apps addictive. Jesus H. Christ, just fucking look around... Every kid with a phone has their face buried in it all day.
According to a 2023 Baylor study, 28% of Instagram users meet the diagnostic criteria for addiction. A 2024 study published in the Journal of Behavioral Addictions found that 33.5% of participants had high-risk Instagram use, with 26.5% showing mild addiction, 6.1% moderate addiction, and almost 1% severe addiction.
And this disproves the fine being a classic EU shakedown for money how exactly? If those assholes really oh so wanted to protect the children they'd create regulation, not extort blood money. And just because Facebook is evil doesn't mean EU isn't worse.
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Yeah. And is it not amazing that pretty much everyone is expected to be responsible for the childrens physical, social, and mental wellbeing now, EXCEPT for their actual parents?
Senior citizens (Score:3)
On the flip side, they should look into the design patterns employed on a lot of these "senior" applications. Some of them are just down right traps designed to aggravate you or worse make you select the wrong choice because things are too small to read.
Tween-aged girl (Score:2)
Obviously, an adult owns the phone but who owns the account linked to it? While Google/Apple 'know' the account-holder's date-of-birth, the rest of the internet doesn't. The result is either services linked to a government Id. or every online service using a so-called age-detection algorithm that can be out-smarted by a tween-aged girl.
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I'm a living example of what that can do
pfft i seriously doubt you were ever destined for greatness my man.
You can say a lot about Facebook (Score:2)
Too bad Vestager has the hots for Epic, else they would look into Fortnite.
Should look into another service (Score:3)
In my country, many children seem to be addicted to something they call "Tick Tock". Perhaps the EU should start looking into such time synchronization services also.
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This stuff takes time. TikTok will no doubt be next. Right now they are opening an investigation based on a report from 8 months ago. This stuff doesn't move quickly. TikTok also falls under the DMA so they have to follow the same rules here.
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many children seem to be addicted to something they call "Tick Tock"
.... addicted as in they go on it every day.... like you do to slashdot....like we all did to the early internet. Im always shocked at the double standards on this particular issue, especially on Slashdot which lets be honest, is full of nerds who spend all their time on the internet
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Not the same thing.
Checking /. once per day is not the same as turning to TikTok for a quick dopamin kick whenever you have a spare moment, or use TikTok as an avoidance strategy in order to avoid having to deal with real people. Also, I don't go to sleep way too late because I can't stop scrolling /. comments, whereas you will hear kids tell their friends about how the cannot stop swiping to the next fix. Source: I teach in high school, I have first-hand experience with this.
When I was an "early Internet a