Digital age: Meta supports EU-wide age restrictions

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has signaled its support for proposals for uniform digital age in the EU member states. The company is responding to an initiative of France, Spain and Greece that drive the concept forward. At the same time, Meta wants to take advantage of prohibitions from the wind.

The three countries propose to introduce an EU-wide age limit for digital maturity. Under this threshold, minors would need their parents’ consent to register with social media platforms. In addition, age verification and youth protection systems for internet-enabled devices are to be integrated.

Meta: Not only for social media

“We believe that this can be an effective solution to the industry -wide challenge to ensure that teenagers have safe, age -appropriate experiences online,” said Meta In a newsroom post with. At the same time, surveys would have shown that legal guardians also advocate such a solution. The company emphasizes that such regulations should not only affect social media platforms, but also gaming, streaming, messaging and browsing. According to META, teenagers use an average of 40 apps per week.

Meta pleads for an age verification at app store or operating system level. “I think it makes a lot more sense that this is done at the level of the ecosystem, app store or the operating system,” said Tara Hopkins, Global Director of Public Policy on Instagram. Such an age status can then be shared over several apps, and also influence whether apps from app stores can be downloaded at all. For example, Apple has already integrated an API for developers in its child protection functions, which, after approval of the parents, passed on to apps the respective age of age in which a child is located. Nevertheless, Google and Apple are directed against the request to transfer responsibility.

Against a state prohibition

Meta’s support is made up of the hope that this will take away the distance between state social media bans. One that applies to less than 16-year-olds has already been introduced in Australia. These would “undermine parental authority and concentrate closely on a kind of online service,” said Meta. The support for an EU-wide digital age of majority is not a promise of such bans.