Are children becoming addicted?

EU initiates proceedings against Facebook group

The EU Commission is opening proceedings against the Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta on suspicion of violations against the protection of minors. There are fears that the design of the services, including their algorithms, could trigger addictive behavior in children, the Brussels authority announced on Thursday.

In particular, there are fears of a so-called rabbit hole effect. This refers to people getting so deeply lost in a topic that they can no longer find their way out - similar to the main character in the story Alice in Wonderland getting lost in a rabbit hole. Algorithms - simply put, instructions written by humans for computers - can theoretically recognize such patterns of behaviour and exploit them to encourage users to spend more time on a platform.

Online platforms are obliged by a new EU law on digital services (DSA) to provide special protection for minors, among other things. It prohibits targeting them with advertising based on personal data. In addition, risks that exploit the weaknesses and inexperience of minors and cause addictive behavior must be assessed and mitigated.

The Commission has doubts that Meta sufficiently complies with these rules for the protection of minors. The company's age control methods are also a cause for concern. These may not be effective.

The Commission now wants to gather further evidence, for example through interviews. The initiation of the proceedings will initially only examine a suspicion, the outcome has not yet been determined.

Not the first proceedings
The Commission had already initiated proceedings against Meta at the end of April. This concerns the suspicion that the company had not complied with the DSA when dealing with political advertising. The law not only requires platforms to comply with stricter rules for the protection of minors, but also to take faster and stricter action than before against illegal content such as hate and hate speech online. Otherwise they could face hefty fines. In principle, large services such as Facebook or Tiktok have to follow more rules than small ones.

Proceedings are already underway against the online platform TikTok and the short message service X (formerly Twitter). Tiktok is being investigated as to whether the Chinese company is endangering the mental health of minors with its app version Tiktok Lite. Following reports of illegal and misleading posts about the attack on Israel by the Islamist Hamas, X was sent a list of questions, which the company did not answer to the satisfaction of the EU Commission. Proceedings were initiated against X in mid-December.