The European Commission has opened a formal procedure to assess whether Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has breached the Digital Services Act (DSA) in areas related to protection of minors.

The Commission is concerned that Facebook and Instagram’s systems, including their algorithms, may encourage behavioral addictions in childrenas well as creating so-called “rabbit hole effects.”

In addition, the Commission is also concerned about Meta’s age verification and verification methods.

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The discovery of the procedure is based on a preliminary analysis of the risk assessment report sent by Meta in September 2023.

According to the commission, this assessment is necessary to counter potential risks to the realization of the fundamental right to physical and mental well-being of childrens, as well as respect for their rights.

Meta will be assessed for compliance with the DSA’s requirements for measures to prevent minors from accessing inappropriate content, particularly the age verification tools used by Meta, which may not be reasonable, provided and effective.

If proven, these omissions would constitute a violation of the law on the subject.

On April 30, 2024, the Commission had already opened formal proceedings against Meta, both in relation to Facebook and Instagram, for misleading advertising, political content, notification and action mechanisms, data access for researchersand the lack of an effective third-party civil discourse tool and real-time election monitoring in the run-up to the European Parliament elections.

On January 31, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized to a group of relatives who say their children were victims of online sexual abuse, but denied that social media use was harming their mental health.