At Meta, the safety of young people remains a top priority. The company has expressed support for proposals to establish a common Digital Majority Age across EU member states, requiring parental approval for younger teens' access to digital services, including social media.
Meta believes this initiative can effectively address the industry-wide challenge of ensuring safe and age-appropriate online experiences for teens. This approach is based on three key principles: parental approval of app downloads by younger teens, consistency across the industry, and robust age verification mechanisms.
A recent poll by Morning Consult revealed that three-quarters of EU parents support parental approval for app downloads for teens under 16. Meta agrees with this sentiment, emphasizing that parents should have the final say over which online services their teens use. Regulation should empower parents to make decisions for their families.
Meta stresses that any new provisions should apply broadly across all digital services used by teens, not just social media platforms. Teens engage with a variety of apps weekly, including gaming, streaming, messaging, and browsing. Focusing solely on social media could push teens toward unregulated digital spaces.
Robust age verification mechanisms are crucial for implementing a Digital Majority Age effectively. Meta supports solutions that reduce the burden on parents while being easy-to-use and privacy-preserving. The company advocates for an EU-wide solution at the app store or operating system level to ensure consistency across industries.
Meta clarifies that its support for an EU-wide Digital Majority Age does not endorse government-mandated social media bans. Such bans remove parental authority and overlook how teens use social media to connect with others and learn about the world around them.
To enhance youth safety further, Meta recently launched Teen Accounts designed to support parents in ensuring their teens can safely use social media. These accounts include built-in protections limiting contact and content exposure while encouraging breaks from apps and turning off notifications at night.
Millions of European teens are automatically placed into Teen Accounts where they need parental permission to change settings to be less strict. Parents can also set individual time limits on app usage during specific times like dinner or school hours.
Meta emphasizes that as teens continue using digital services creatively and socially exploring who they are; it is essential that parents feel confident about their teen's safe usage through supportive tools rather than bans bypassing their input—a thoughtful EU-wide Digital Majority Age grounded in parental approval will help achieve this goal.