The European Union is preparing sweeping new regulations targeting the addictive design features of major social media platforms, including TikTok, Meta and X, amid mounting evidence linking their use to serious mental health harm among children and teenagers.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the plans in a speech in Copenhagen, painting a stark picture of digital life for young people today.
“Sleep deprivation, depression, anxiety, self-harm, addictive behaviour, cyberbullying, grooming, exploitation, suicide,” she said. “These risks are the result of business models that treat our children’s attention as a commodity.”
At the centre of the EU’s push is the forthcoming Digital Fairness Act (DFA), expected to be proposed later this year.
The legislation will specifically target what von der Leyen described as “addictive and harmful design practices” — features such as endless scrolling, autoplay and push notifications engineered to maximise time spent on platforms. The DFA will also place strict limits on the use of artificial intelligence within social media environments.
The new rules will build on the existing Digital Services Act (DSA), which already requires large platforms to tackle illegal and harmful content more aggressively. Under that framework, the European Commission has opened investigations into TikTok, X, and Meta’s Instagram and Facebook platforms.
Separately, proceedings have begun against X over the use of its Grok AI tool to generate sexual images of women and children.
Von der Leyen also raised the prospect of setting a minimum age for social media access across EU member states, with a Commission proposal potentially arriving as early as this summer following recommendations from an expert panel.
“The question is not whether young people should have access to social media,” she said. “The question is whether social media should have access to young people.”
The EU’s regulatory push is backed by a growing body of academic and clinical evidence.
A 2024 peer-reviewed systematic review published in Healthcare (MDPI), drawing on a decade of literature across five major databases, found significant challenges to children’s mental wellbeing posed by the rapid evolution of social media from a basic networking platform into a multifaceted tool.
The United States Public Health Service Surgeon General’s 2023 advisory added further weight to those concerns, warning that frequent social media use could be associated with changes in parts of the brain linked to emotions and learning. The advisory said it may also affect impulse control, social behaviour, emotional regulation, and sensitivity to social rewards and punishments.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has warned that media use and screen time are associated with increased risks for children and adolescents, including attention deficits, increased aggression, low self-esteem and depression.
The American Psychological Association has also highlighted the correlation between high social media use and poor mental health among adolescents.
Gender disparities are also pronounced. Research from Pew Research Center found that 34% of teenage girls said social media made them feel worse about their own lives, compared with 20% of boys. The study also found teenagers are more likely today than two years ago to describe their own social media use as excessive.
Spokespeople for TikTok, Meta and X did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the EU’s proposals.
The Commission said enforcement action against Meta is already under way because Instagram and Facebook are allegedly failing to enforce their stated minimum age requirement of 13.
Biological samples from an Italian man were transferred to a specialist hospital for testing on Tuesday, after he was suspected of contra...
The European Union is preparing sweeping new regulations targeting the addictive design features of major social m...
This is the second of three articles examining Georgia’s growing crisis over access to treatment for Duchenn...
Dozens of people, including two police officers, were killed and dozens more injured in a bomb blast at a marke...
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer laid down the gauntlet to challengers on Tuesday (12 May), as he defied calls to ...
Nine people, including eight children, were killed in a shooting at a middle school in Türkiye’s southeastern Kahramanmaraş province on Wednesday. Thirteen others were injured, sparking public outrage and raising concerns about a rare phenomenon in the country.
Heavy social media usage appears to contribute to a drop in wellbeing among young people, especially girls, in some English-speaking countries, the World Happiness Report found.
American rapper Ye, formerly Kanye West, has apologised for his past antisemitic remarks in a full-page Wall Street Journal ad, attributing his behaviour to an undiagnosed brain injury and bipolar disorder.
As climate change triggers record-breaking heatwaves, wildfires, and floods across the globe, experts are warning of a deepening and underreported crisis: the growing toll on mental health.
Kuwait arrested four members of an IRGC-linked group as they tried to enter the country by sea, the Gulf state's KUNA news agency reported on Tuesday. Meanwhile, a senior IRGC officer said Iran had expanded its definition of the Strait of Hormuz to include a far wider area.
Australia confirmed it will repatriate citizens from the MV Hondius cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak, with quarantine on arrival. Spain, France are evacuating nationals as three deaths are confirmed. In the U.S., two passengers have been isolated after testing positive for the virus.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday dismissed Iran’s response to a U.S. peace proposal as a “stupid proposal,” saying Tehran failed to commit to abandoning its pursuit of a nuclear weapon, while warning the fragile ceasefire was on “massive life support”.
Metropolitan Shio of Senaki and Chkhorotsku has been elected the 142nd head of the Georgian Orthodox Church at a meeting of clergy in Tbilisi following the death of longtime Patriarch Ilia II.
Afghanistan has signed a five-year gold mining contract with Afghan and Azerbaijani companies in a deal worth more than $20m, the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum has said.
Biological samples from an Italian man were transferred to a specialist hospital for testing on Tuesday, after he was suspected of contracting hantavirus. Meanwhile, World Health Organization boss Tedros Ghebreyesus said there were “no sign” of a larger outbreak linked to the MV Hondius cruise.
The public health challenge linked to the emergence of a rare strain of hantavirus is complex, according to pharmacist and health commentator Thorrun Govind. She told AnewZ's Daybreak the situation was complicated by the number of nationalities involved and the need to safely return the passengers.
Countries worldwide sought to prevent the further spread of the hantavirus on Thursday, after an outbreak on a cruise ship, by tracking those who had disembarked before the virus was detected and anyone who had close contact with them since.
Singapore has isolated and is testing two of its residents who travelled aboard a cruise ship linked to a deadly hantavirus outbreak, the Communicable Diseases Agency (CDA) said on Thursday.
Argentinian authorities are reconstructing the journeys of Dutch citizens who presented with symptoms of deadly hantavirus after visiting Argentina and Chile as part of a luxury cruise trip, the country's Health Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday (6 May)
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment