The European Commission has issued a stark preliminary warning to Meta, demanding the tech giant overhaul addictive design features on its Facebook and Instagram platforms or face substantial penalties that could reach as high as 6 percent of the company’s total annual global turnover.
In its preliminary investigation findings, EU regulators flagged several core platform features as key contributors to potential compulsive social media use, especially among children and adolescent users. These high-risk design elements include infinite content scrolling, automatically playing video streams, and algorithm-driven personalized content recommendation systems. Regulators argue that the unending flow of content pushes human brains into passive autopilot mode, directly fostering unhealthy digital consumption habits that can spiral into excessive, uncontrolled screen time.
Regulators specifically highlighted Meta’s short-form video feature Reels and ephemeral content format Stories as particularly problematic, noting that the formats are intentionally engineered to encourage extended, non-stop scrolling. The Commission also called out gaps in Meta’s existing safety frameworks, arguing that the company failed to conduct thorough, transparent risk assessments of how its platform design impacts youth users, including the significant amount of time children spend on the apps, often late at night.
Even Meta’s existing youth safety tools came under sharp criticism from regulators. Time management features, including those that are supposed to be enabled by default for teenage users, can be easily overridden by users and do not deliver meaningful reductions in overall screen time, the Commission found. Parental control tools offered by the platforms are also only effective if caregivers have enough free time and advanced technical knowledge to set them up and use them correctly, putting less resourced families at a disadvantage, regulators added.
In response to the findings, a Meta spokesperson pushed back against the Commission’s conclusions, telling the BBC that the preliminary assessment does not accurately account for the substantial steps the company has already taken to protect teen users. Meta countered that it has already rolled out dedicated Teen Accounts, which automatically activate default protections for younger users and give parents direct control over usage: the tools allow caregivers to block Instagram access during overnight hours and cap daily teen screen time at just 15 minutes. The spokesperson added that Meta shares the European Commission’s commitment to delivering safe, positive online experiences for teens and will continue to engage constructively with regulators throughout the process.
It is important to note that these preliminary findings do not represent a final regulatory decision. Meta now has the opportunity to review all evidence submitted against the company and deliver a formal response to the Commission before any final ruling is issued.
This action is part of a broader ramp-up of EU regulatory action targeting large technology companies over the past year, as policymakers push major platforms to strengthen online protections for all users, with a particular focus on children and teens. The preliminary findings also come ahead of a highly anticipated set of recommendations due Monday from a special expert panel, which is tasked with proposing new policy frameworks to better shield minors from harmful online content.
Policymakers across the EU are facing growing public and political pressure to take stricter action on youth social media use. A number of EU member states, including France, have already pushed for formal social media bans for minors, following the lead of Australia, which implemented new restrictions for all users under the age of 16 earlier this year.