EU KIDS Act must tackle addictive design for everyone

Today, the European Commission presented the EU KIDS Act, aiming at improving the protection of children and young people online. Young people’s mental health is under severe pressure, and girls in particular face bullying, harassment and sexual violence online. 

While the Greens/EFA Group welcomes serious action to protect children online, we will work to ensure that this proposal will also contribute to changing platforms’ business model based on hate and user addiction overall. Moreover, any introduced age verification tool must be fully privacy proof and guarantee that systems cannot be abused to feed the data machine of Big Tech.

MEP Alexandra Geese, Greens/EFA negotiator for the Digital Services Act (DSA), comments:

“Social media must become safe by default for young people – because their mental health is at stake. That is why we welcome the Commission’s proposal. The clear condemnation of attention-based recommendation systems, infinite scroll and other addictive mechanisms sets the tone. The EU KIDS Act lays the foundation for better social networks made in Europe. It points the way towards social media that serves people, not billionaires.”

MEP Kim van Sparrentak, Greens/EFA negotiator for the Digital Fairness Act (DFA), comments:

“Children should be safe online, but the reality is different. Online, we are confronted with the most disturbing images and messages, and besides that excessive screen time is harmful for children's development. Parents are powerless against tech companies. That is not their fault, it is down to the dangerous way in which those platforms design their services. It was about time that Europe took action. But it’s not only children who the internet is unsafe for. If we simply ban children from the platforms without fundamentally changing the way they operate, Musk and Zuckerberg will be popping champagne. These platforms will then continue to pose a threat to our health, safety and democracy.”