Noeline Blackwell

Meta is reported as having disagreed with the Commission’s preliminary findings and is insisting that it has measures in place to detect and remove accounts from anyone under that age.

Online safety coordinator with the Children’s Rights Alliance, Noeline Blackwell, said: “Despite the fact that Meta insists it has measures in place to prevent this from happening, it is clear from the EU Commission preliminary findings that their measures do not work. 

“Children under the age of thirteen are accessing these platforms. There is ample evidence of this. Both the Commission and Meta agree that such access is inappropriate. Meta should either change their systems so that no content is uploaded at all that is inappropriate for pre-teen children or should ensure that they have adequate systems in place to detect when under-13-year-olds try to access these social media platforms.

“Apart from the legislation on which the EU findings are based, Irish law and regulation require the platforms to ensure that children – anyone under 18 – do not access harmful or illegal material online. Now the challenge is for Meta to open their eyes to the need to ensure that children can access their platforms safely.  If they continue to deny the obvious reality that their age assurance systems are insufficient, they run a very real risk of harming children and acting illegally.

“While unapproved access to age-restricted material is a wider challenge than just these Meta platforms, there is no doubt that with their intellectual and financial resources, the tech industry could resolve that challenge if they really wanted to. It might reduce their profits and slow them down a little bit, but it would save children from the real risk of harm and would be the responsible thing to do.”