Overview
- Meta, which the European Commission said Wednesday lets under‑13s onto Facebook and Instagram, now faces possible DSA fines of up to 6% of global revenue after investigators found easy age fakery and a seven‑click complaint path that rarely removes kids.
- The Commission also unveiled an open‑source age‑verification app that countries can adapt, using zero‑knowledge proofs to confirm a user is old enough without exposing their name or exact birth date.
- Governments in the UK and Chile are moving toward under‑16 limits, with London pledging some form of restriction after a Lords push for a ban and Santiago drafting a bill that would bar access and require platforms to verify ages.
- An NGO audit that tracked seven child‑like accounts for a month found 98.8% of 1,076 posts were advertising, often delivered by influencers as if they were personal tips, spurring Mexican groups to petition Congress and the consumer agency for tighter rules.
- Experts and police describe harms that range from body‑image anxiety to online radicalization and attempted cartel recruitment, while critics warn strict age checks raise privacy questions and are easy to dodge using family accounts or VPNs.