Meta supports the concept of a European Union of the age of digital maturity

Meta support the proposal to introduce a common age for digital maturity in the European Union. According to the assumption, younger teenagers would request parental approval to access digital services.

Parents' consent as a starting point

Meta argues that there is presently no uniform approach to protecting underage users in the online environment. The company indicates that parents should be able to control what applications their children usage — not only social platforms, but besides communicators, games or streaming services.

We agree that it is parents who know their teenagers best and should have a decisive voice over what digital services their children can use.

The proposed regulations would cover all types of applications that regularly usage teenagers.

Verification of age at strategy level

A key component of this concept is the implementation of standardised age verification mechanisms. The meta suggests that solutions would be more effective at the level of the operating strategy or application store, alternatively than straight in individual applications. It stresses the request to guarantee compliance with privacy requirements and ease of usage for both users and parents.

Distinguishing from the prohibition approach

At the same time, the meta is cut off from ideas of a complete ban on social media for minors.

For the record, our support for a common age of digital maturity in the EU does not mean supporting government bans on social media.

In the company's assessment, this approach ignores the real needs of users, limits the function of parents and does not take account of the differences between different services. The Meta declares that it is better to harmonise the rules and make available tools to support parental control alternatively than creating general restrictions.