Report from Courthouse News
In Brief – The European Commission has asked Snapchat, YouTube, Apple’s App Store and Google Play how they protect children on their platforms, including how they attempt to verify users’ ages and prevent minors from accessing harmful content and illegal products. The new Digital Services Act (DSA) probe follows EU online child safety draft guidelines adopted in July, which include making minors’ accounts private by default, turning off addictive features like “streaks” and autoplay, and blocking people from taking screenshots of content posted by kids to prevent sexual extortion. Snapchat is being asked to explain how it enforces its rules to keep kids under 13 off the app and how it stops minors from buying illegal products. YouTube is being asked about its age verification system and how it decides what videos to show to different age users. The Apple and Google app stores face questions regarding how they rate apps for age-appropriateness and then stop minors from downloading apps meant only for adults.
Context – Platforms with over 45 million active users in the EU are designated Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) under the DSA and face the strictest regulatory standards and enforcement by the Commission itself. The regulator has opened compliance investigations of several of the social media platforms, including Meta and TikTok, which includes probes of how they protect young people, as well as four adult sites, focusing on how they verify user ages and keep minors off their platforms. Attempts to protect teens from various online harms are accelerating globally. Other European initiatives include France imposing age checks on porn sites, the Commission overseeing a five-country pilot of an age verification app, and President von der Leyen saying that the Commission will explore a social media age limit. Australia’s 16-year-old age limit for social media and age verification mandate is being watched. Its regulator is already exploring extending the age limit to platforms with social features, such as gaming sites, and search engines are being ordered to use age verification to block minors from online porn.