Overview
- The European Commission issued preliminary findings on Wednesday that Meta's controls let children under 13 use Instagram and Facebook, citing easy age fakery and a seven-click reporting path, and warned of fines up to 6% of global revenue if fixes fall short.
- The Commission also released an open-source age-check app that countries can adapt, using zero-knowledge proofs so sites get a simple yes-or-no on age without learning a user's identity or exact birth date.
- In the UK, the government said it will restrict social media for under-16s within the Child Welfare and Schools Bill, with the final model to follow a public consultation after the House of Lords pushed for a full ban.
- Chile's government plans to send a bill to Congress to bar under-16s from social networks and force platforms to verify users' ages, a move that has sparked questions about privacy, data handling and how the rules would be enforced.
- Lawmakers elsewhere are advancing mixed thresholds that could fragment rules, from a Mexican proposal to ban under-14s with parental consent at 14–17 to subnational plans in Argentina and Mexico City, while Australia’s 2025 under-16 limit has seen teens evade checks using family accounts or VPNs.