EU Targets Addictive Design in TikTok, Instagram to Shield Minors

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced plans to act against engagement-driving features on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook later this year, naming endless scrolling, autoplay, and push notifications as design choices that hook children. The Commission is also probing how recommendation systems funnel minors toward content promoting eating disorders and self-harm, and has accused Meta of failing to enforce its own minimum age of 13. A legal proposal could land as early as this summer, informed by a special expert panel on child safety online.

To close the age-verification gap, Brussels has built its own verification app it claims meets the strictest privacy bar globally, and member states will be able to plug it into national digital wallets for platforms to consume. The move follows a preliminary finding that Meta breached the Digital Services Act because under-13s can trivially bypass its checks, and parallels a March U.S. ruling against Meta and YouTube tying infinite scroll and autoplay to teen mental health harms.

The push lands amid escalating EU-U.S. friction over tech regulation, with more than $7 billion in fines levied on American firms in two years and the Trump administration threatening tariffs in response. Australia’s under-16 social media ban, now being mirrored by Spain, France, and the U.K., signals that the addictive-design fight is becoming a global regulatory front.