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Meta Accused of Failing to Keep Children Off Instagram and Facebook in Europe
European Union regulators said the company did not have effective controls to check a user’s self-declared date of birth, in violation of an online safety law.
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Regulators in Europe said Meta appears to be violating the Digital Services Act, an E.U. law passed in 2022 to force social media companies to police their platforms more aggressively.
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Jason Henry for The New York Times
By
Adam Satariano
Reporting from London
April 29, 2026,
3:43 a.m. ET
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Meta has failed to implement needed safeguards to keep children under the age of 13 off Instagram and Facebook in violation of a European Union online safety law, officials said on Wednesday.
Meta does not have an adequate system to identify and remove the accounts of the children who flout the social media giant’s age limits, the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, said in
a preliminary ruling
. Without changes, Meta could face fines and other penalties.
European regulators are aggressively
cracking down
on social media companies over child safety.
Snap
and
TikTok
have also been targeted by regulators in Brussels, while governments in Spain, France and Denmark are among those considering new rules to prevent young people from using social media at all.
Regulators said Meta appears to be violating the Digital Services Act, a law passed in 2022 to force social media companies to police their platforms more aggressively. The company was found to lack have effective controls to check the accuracy of a person’s self-declared date of birth when setting up an account, making it easy to sidestep rules meant to keep children under 13 off the social media sites.
Regulators said Meta’s tool for reporting minors is “difficult to use and not effective,” with up to seven steps required just to access the necessary form. After a minor is reported for being under 13, the company often does not follow up and the user can keep using the service without any kind of review, regulators said.
Across the European Union, evidence suggests roughly 10 to 12 percent of children under 13 are accessing Instagram and Facebook, according to regulators.
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