UK Regulators Push Meta, Social Media Firms to Enforce Stricter Age Rules, Weigh Ban for Under 16s

The UK’s media and privacy regulators on Thursday pressured Meta Platforms (META) and other social media companies to implement stricter rules to keep children away from their services, Reuters reported. Britain’s watchdogs pointed out that social media platforms were failing to enforce their own minimum age rules. Following Australia’s ban on the use of social media apps by children, the UK has been considering a similar move.

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UK Pressures Meta, Social Media Firms to Ensure Children’s Safety

As part of the latest efforts under Britain’s Online Safety Act, Ofcom has asked Meta Platforms’ Facebook and Instagram, Roblox (RBLX), Snapchat (SNAP), ByteDance’s TikTok, and Alphabet’s (GOOGL) YouTube ​to show by April 30 how they would check users’ age more strictly, make feeds safer, limit contact with strangers, and stop testing new products on minors.

Also, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) separately issued an open letter to these social media platforms to adopt “modern, viable” age-assurance tools to prevent those under 13 from accessing services that are not meant for them.

Both Ofcom and ICO said that they are increasingly worried ⁠about algorithmic feeds that expose children to harmful or addictive content. Ofcom can impose fines of up to 10% of a company’s qualifying global revenue, while the ICO can slap fines of up to 4% of a company’s global annual turnover. Last month, the UK’s privacy regulator slapped Reddit (RDDT) with a fine of about 14.5 million pounds for failing to implement proper age checks and for unlawfully processing children’s data.

Meanwhile, a Meta Platforms spokesperson said the company has already implemented AI-based age-detection and age-estimation tools and places teens in ​accounts with built-in protections. ​Also, a YouTube spokesperson said the platform offers age-appropriate experiences and was “surprised to see Ofcom move away from a risk-based approach,” requesting that the ⁠regulator focus on “high-risk services” that are not complying with the law.

Wall Street’s Take on Social Media Stocks

Amid growing regulatory scrutiny, let’s look at Wall Street’s ratings for some of the social media stocks. Wall Street currently has a Strong Buy consensus rating on Meta Platforms (META) and Spotify (SPOT).

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