Facebook e Instagram create addiction in children? THE'Europe wants to see clearly and opens an investigation into Meta. The EU Commission, in fact, has started a formal procedure to assess whether Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, may have violated the rules of the Digital services act (abbreviated to Dsa) on protection of minors. Just three months ago - outside the European context and therefore also outside the perimeter of the DSA - it was the city of New York to ask yourself the same question and move from words to deeds with one lawsuit filed against Facebook, TikTok and YouTube guilty - according to those who accuse them - of fueling a mental health crisis: a crisis that costs the Big Apple 100 million dollars a year to finance targeted treatment programs.
Minors and social dependency, the EU's fears
The Commission fears that these platforms, in particular their algorithms, may cause addiction in children, as well as creating the so-called "rabbit hole" effect (it is called Rabbit hole effect).
The procedure just started also concerns the verification of Meta's compliance with the requirements of the DSA in relation to the measures for prevent access of minors to inappropriate content and the age verification tools used by Meta.
The initiation of this procedure is based on an analysis of the risk assessment report sent by Meta to the Commission in September 2023 and on Meta's responses to the Commission's requests for information on protection of minors. Last April 30, the Commission had already started proceedings against Meta, in relation to both Facebook and Instagram, on the issues of misleading advertising, political content and the lack of a content monitoring tool ahead of the European Parliament elections.
