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Move comes amid concern Big Tech cannot be trusted to protect children from harmful content
Move comes amid concern Big Tech cannot be trusted to protect children from harmful content European Commission vice-president Henna Virkkunen said children should still have the right to access information online and contact friends.
Photograph: Nicolas Tucat/AFP via Getty Imagesaim to prevent children under 15 using “risky” app functions but will stop short of an outright ban on teenagers using social media.
“Among the member states it has been very much expectation that we have to be able also now to deliver soon and fast with this,” commission vice-president Henna Virkkunen told The Irish Times in an interview. “We have to really look at which are the harmful features where you shouldn’t be able to access before a certain age. ” She said children should still have the right to access information online and contact friends.
‘Hey, it’s not that hard to grow your own spuds’: how Portnoo in Donegal spawned a social media star farmerVon der Leyen will set out detailed plans next Wednesday in her annual “state of the union” speech to the European Parliament. The measures are likely to curb access to popular apps such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X and Snapchat, which have millions of young users.
“We have to find right balance so it can’t be that kind of blanket ban,” Virkkunen said, suggesting the biggest global platforms will face pan-European enforcement instead of national enforcement. She declined to discuss the extent of potential fines that might be imposed for non-compliance with the new regime but noted steep financial penalties for violations of The commissioner, who has responsibility for online safety in the EU’s executive branch, told a Dublin conference on Friday that social media risks to children were “not abstract” and went on to cite “deeply worrying” evidence about the dangers.
“For too many children, social media can have negative effects such as low self-esteem, loss of concentration, cyberbullying, grooming, or exposure to harmful content,” she said. Von der Leyen’s proposals will include binding measures to allow only gradual “step-by-step” access to some of the most popular apps.
“Already under our rules we have very clear obligations on online platforms that they should take good care of the safety and privacy and the security of minors,” Virkkunen said. “But we see that they haven’t done enough in this field – and also we have very clear guidelines for them of what we are expecting, what kind of practices, how they should set up that kind of ‘safe account’ for minors.
And they have been doing this very, very slowly. So we are demanding more now from them clearly. ” Asked whether greed was the reason Big Tech platforms weren’t doing enough, she said they were “doing big business”.
“They are very much always defending their own business model, as we see. Normally online platforms – social media platforms – they are not voluntarily taking the steps. So we have to really have rules for them and we have to really push them to change.
” Asked whether she was saying Big Tech didn’t care about child safety, she said: “We see that most of the social media platforms, they have practices in place how they’re going to take care of the safety of minors. But these are not really effective often so they have to do more. ” The Government has stated its preference for EU action to restrict children’s social media access instead of national measures.
If the commission presents draft law before the end of the year, Ireland’s six-month presidency of the EU means Minister for CommunicationsOpenAI boss and Elon Musk back calls to put brakes on ‘reckless’ AI developmentAnthropic says it blocked possible efforts to build biological weapons and deadly pathogensAnnalise Murphy: ‘Juliette’s the one I think about constantly. I can’t imagine life without her now’LATEST STORIESOpenAI boss and Elon Musk back calls to put brakes on ‘reckless’ AI development
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