By Inti Landauro and Foo Yun Chee
BRUSSELS, May 12 (Reuters) – The European Union is working on new rules to protect children against the addictive designs of social media platforms like TikTok, Meta and X, the EU chief said on Tuesday, as the bloc toughened its stance on Big Tech.
“Sleep deprivation, depression, anxiety, self-harm, addictive behaviour, cyberbullying, grooming, exploitation, suicide. Risks are multiplying fast,” European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen said in Copenhagen.
“The question is not whether young people should have access to social media, the question is whether social media should have access to young people,” Von der Leyen said.
Reflecting Europe’s broadside against U.S. tech firms, Von der Leyen said the Commission would target “addictive and harmful design practices” in its Digital Fairness Act (DFA), to be proposed towards the end of the year.
BANNING MANIPULATIVE, ADDICTIVE FEATURES
The Act would ban manipulative practices, addictive features and misleading influencer marketing on digital platforms.
The risks in the digital world are “the result of business models that treat our children’s attention as a commodity,” she said, calling for strict limits on AI use in social media.
“The question is not whether young people should have access to social media, the question is whether social media should have access to young people,” Von der Leyen said.
The Commission may propose a minimum age for platform access this summer, Von der Leyen said, adding: “We are taking action against TikTok and its addictive design, endless scrolling, autoplay and push notifications.”
“The same applies to Meta, because we believe Instagram and Facebook are failing to enforce their own minimum age of 13.”
Spokespeople at the three companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
CRACKING DOWN ON TEEN SOCIAL MEDIA USE
The new regulation will strengthen and expand the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which requires large platforms to do more to tackle illegal and harmful content, Von der Leyen said.
Under the DSA rules, the Commission is already investigating TikTok, X and Meta Platforms’ Instagram and Facebook.
It has been investigating X over possible risks from deploying Grok in the EU, including the spread of manipulated sexualised images.
On Tuesday, Europe’s top court sided with Italy’s telecoms watchdog against Meta saying it should compensate publishers for using snippets of their articles.
TikTok, meanwhile, made a last-ditch attempt to scrap its designation as a “gatekeeper” under EU rules, which require it to meet tougher standards.
Europe is hardening its stance more broadly against social media, with nations from Norway and France to Turkey and Britain debating or rolling out legislation to ban or limit teenage social media use.
(Reporting by Inti Landauro and Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Alexandra Hudson, Gareth Jones, Adam Jourdan and Bernadette Baum)
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