The European Commission plans to take action against “addictive design” features on TikTok and Instagram including endless scrolling, autoplay, and push notifications, with new regulation expected later this year, according to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The Commission is also investigating platforms that allow children to go down “rabbit holes” of harmful content like videos that promote eating disorders or self-harm, and has developed its own age verification app that can be integrated into member states’ digital wallets and enforced by online platforms. The crackdown follows the EU’s recent finding that Meta breached the Digital Services Act by failing to keep under-13s off its platforms, and comes as governments worldwide pursue social media bans for under-16s, with Australia becoming the first country to enforce such a ban in December and Spain, France, and the U.K. proposing their own legislation.
