EU Wants More Power to Pursue Social Media Safety

European regulators are reportedly granting themselves more authority to police Big Tech’s consumer protection failures.

As the Financial Times (FT) reported Sunday (July 12), this comes as part of a larger push by the European Commission (EC) to increase social media protections.

According to the report, the EC is set to announce a proposal to boost online consumer protection before the year’s end. The commission is also debating a social media ban for younger users, once it hears the findings of an expert panel due Monday (July 13).

“We have to make sure in the coming weeks that we have an overall coherent response to an issue that has really taken off … not just [in] political circles but I think among the general public,” said EU Justice Commissioner Michael McGrath.

The report noted that an increasing number of countries are considering online protections for children, including where social media is concerned.

The U.K. recently announced a ban on platforms like TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram for people under 16, while countries like France have announced measures to restrict access on a national level, the FT added.

The EC is due to propose digital fairness rules that would deal with things like the addictive design of websites and apps, subscription traps and other “dark patterns” that entice people into spending money, the report said. These rules could complement other measures under consideration by the commission to limit children’s access to social media.

“There’s no single silver bullet that will resolve all the issues, and I think we will need a set of measures that are working together,” McGrath said. The digital fairness legislation is designed to address “any remaining gaps in the area of consumer protection online” focusing particularly on young people, he added.

“Children can be particularly impressionable and vulnerable. So we think protections need to be strengthened in that area, especially … if there is an underlying commercial transaction there,” he said.

Meanwhile, U.S. lawmakers last week overwhelmingly backed a bipartisan package of online child safety measures. The KIDS Act establishes baseline federal standards designed to protect minors online while preserving states’ ability to adopt stronger safeguards.

The bill also features provisions limiting minors’ use of disappearing messages, requiring AI chatbots to disclose that users are interacting with artificial intelligence rather than a human, and calling for age-verification technology for users trying to access online pornography.