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EU Chief: Ban Social Media for Under 1309/16 06:33
BRUSSELS (AP) -- The European Union's top official proposed on Wednesday
banning children under 13 across the 27-nation bloc from using social media
sites and imposing limits for older teens on accessing the platforms.
The plan outlined by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen adds
to global efforts to protect young people using platforms such as Instagram and
TikTok from online harm.
"I am aware that many perceive the power of Big Tech as overwhelming and
impossible to roll back. I disagree," von der Leyen said in her annual State of
the European Union speech in Strasbourg.
"We do not have to accept addictive features. We do not have to accept
children being drawn into ever more extreme content. We do not have to accept
that girls have their photos used for AI-generated sexualized images," she said.
Von der Leyen said that under her proposal "mini accounts" chaperoned by
guardians would be granted to kids aged 13-15, with limits on features and the
amount of time they can be accessed.
For 15-to-18-year-olds, platforms will need to provide a "safe design," she
said. Further details of the plan are expected Thursday.
Brussels risks a fresh confrontation with Trump and Big Tech
The EU's 27 member nations still need to debate and vote on the proposal,
which could take years and spark tensions with U.S. President Donald Trump, who
has long criticized Europe's tech regulations.
Brando Benifei, an Italian member of the European Parliament, said he
supported the plan and that Brussels shouldn't shy away from a showdown with
the dominant U.S. tech companies.
"To apply this, you need to confront in a very frontal way the interests of
platforms and Big Tech who are not happy with this," he said.
Von der Leyen was advancing a plan she foreshadowed earlier this year, when
she said kids should be exposed to social media in a "phased and gradual" way.
Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok already prohibit
anyone under 13 from opening an account, but authorities have accused the
companies of failing to keep them off.
But some experts said the commission was failing to tackle a more
fundamental issue with the social media industry's core business practices
based on getting users hooked on scrolling through addictive content while
showing them ads.
The plan "merely delays young people's exposure to the risks of online harm
instead of addressing the business model and extractive practices which fuel
it," said Simeon de Brouwer, a policy advisor at digital rights group EDRi. The
platforms will "unavoidably target them as soon as they're a day older than the
threshold."
The EU proposals are part of a global effort to improve children's online
safety
The commission's proposal is part of a wider global push to protect young
people online and represents the first move to introduce a bloc-wide age limit
for social media.
Individual European countries such as Spain and Portugal have taken their
own steps to ban teens from social media platforms, mirroring regulatory
actions in other places like Australia and New Zealand
Some efforts have run into roadblocks. France's top court last month struck
down a law banning children under 15 from social media, saying it infringed on
fundamental freedoms. French President Emmanuel Macron vowed to rework the
proposal.
In the United States, social media company Meta Platforms last month agreed
to pay up to $18 billion and add stronger child-safety measures to its Facebook
and Instagram platforms to resolve a trial over teen social media addiction and
settle claims filed by nearly every state.
Manfred Weber, the head of the largest group in the European Parliament,
spoke after von der Leyen to propose that the EU follow Australia's lead in
allowing citizens to switch off social media algorithms.
"Elon Musk will not like it, but probably that is a reason for doing it," he
said.
Von der Leyen also weighed in on the intensifying debate about artificial
intelligence and the potential risks it poses to humanity, saying the
commission would discuss efforts to slow down advanced AI development with
leading AI companies.
She said the EU would work with "like-minded partners" like Canada and
Britain.
"We want to team up on model evaluation, verification, early warning, AI
security and much more," she said.
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