EU To Crack Down On TikTok, Instagram's 'Addictive Design' (cnbc.com)
- Reference: 0183198263
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/05/12/172213/eu-to-crack-down-on-tiktok-instagrams-addictive-design
- Source link: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/12/tiktok-instagram-social-media-addictive-eu-crack-down.html
> "We are taking action against TikTok and its addictive design -- endless scrolling, autoplay, and push notifications. The same applies to Meta, because we believe Instagram and Facebook are failing to enforce their own minimum age of 13," Von der Leyen said. "We are investigating platforms that allow children to go down 'rabbit holes' of harmful content -- such as videos that promote eating disorders or self-harm," she added.
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> The EU's executive arm has also developed its own age verification app, which has the "highest privacy standards in the world," according to Von der Leyen. Member states will soon be able to integrate it into their digital wallets, and it can easily be enforced by online platforms. "No more excuses -- the technology for age-verification is available," the EU chief said. The EU Commission could have a legal proposal prepared as soon as the summer, as it awaits the advice and findings of its 'Special Panel of experts on Child Safety Online.'
[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/12/tiktok-instagram-social-media-addictive-eu-crack-down.html
[2] https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/04/16/0717208/eu-age-verification-app-announced-to-protect-children-online
Parents (Score:5, Interesting)
Parents need to take some ownership of this issue. My kids were not allowed full Internet access or a cell phone until they were 16 (they are now currently 24 and 25). They rarely use social media because as my one son puts it, "it's a retard fest wrapped in dogged poo." It also helps that I or my wife have never used FB, Instagram, TicTac, etc..I always preached to them that "social media" was actually anti-social in nature and not to get wrapped up in it's BS.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
this is exactly why we don't need regulations for drugs, alcohol and whatever else you want to throw at parents.
yes the teaching starts at home and it should, but society at large (sole reason for a govt) has a burden for allowing these maleficent actors in its eco system.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes they certainly do, but if they would actually do this, it wouldn’t be a problem. We already h e age restrictions for tobacco, alcohol, and other things. They won't stop underaged kids from obtaining them, but they do help to some degree. There are too many absent or deadbeat parents for that to be the only solution to the problem.
Re: (Score:2)
Won't? It hasn't happened the last 30 years. Thinking this will change is insanity.
Re: (Score:2)
As the first poster mentioned, it's already too late for that - parents taking ownership has been a failure.
Re: (Score:1)
With all due respect, things have changed a lot in the 12 years since your kids became teenagers.
Most parents are good people with good intentions, but in today's world they just need a little help in steering their children away from the many dangers that are impossible to avoid entirely.
Addictive Design is just Good Design (Score:2)
If endless scrolling is what people want and they should have the right to have it. Kids are debatable because on one hand the parents should be controlling what their kids have access to but on the other hand what they have access to should be very clearly outlined by these companies. You can't claim to have a 13 year old mode for kids content and then show adult content like sexual videos or self harm.
They will fail to fix the problem (Score:2)
and make everything worse
Government is a blunt instrument with limited ability so solve problems
Highest privacy standards? (Score:2)
> The EU's executive arm has also developed its own age verification app, which has the "highest privacy standards in the world,"
Such as? Will the application use some kind of device level PGP, or another independent encryption standard, with the keys being held by the user? If we take it less literally, are they simply saying they'll try and care more than other nations, which is such a low bar, it's a limbo bar set 3 metres off the ground. It's not private unless the person in question getting verified, has 100% of the control, and since Age Verification is all about side stepping user rights, the contradictory statements of "high
Wuhoo! Problem solved! (Score:3, Insightful)
too bad this is at least 15 year late
We're in to the doom spiral of multi crises
dumb kids is just one of the results
dumb adults is another
Re: (Score:3)
It's not perfect, but it's better than nothing. Surely you agree that publishing health warnings about the dangers of smoking tobacco was a good idea despite that only happening centuries too late and even though there are still people who smoke cigarettes?
If adults want to use technology that will turn them into mindless zombies or rot their brains then that's their own choice. As long as the risks are published it's none of your or my business what someone chooses to do with their life as long as it's
Re: (Score:3)
The EU is not trying to parent your kids. It's trying to regulate product safety, which governments have been doing for ages.