THE European Commission has accused Meta of failing to stop underage users from accessing Facebook and Instagram, in violation of digital rules that require social media sites to protect minors.

The commission said today Meta Platforms lacked effective measures restricting under-13s from signing up and was not doing enough to identify and remove existing underage accounts.

The commission also said Meta was inadequately assessing the risk of children younger than 13 being exposed to “age-inappropriate experiences” on the platforms.

Meta, which has an official minimum sign-up age of 13, claimed to have measures in place to detect and remove underage accounts.

“Understanding age is an industry-wide challenge, which requires an industry-wide solution and we will continue to engage constructively with the European Commission on this important issue,” the company said in a statement.

Brussels is targeting Meta with the Digital Services Act, which requires tech companies to do more to clean up online platforms and protect internet users.

Commission executive vice-president Henna Virkkunen said the EU investigation had found that Instagram and Facebook were “doing very little” to prevent children from gaining access, despite their terms and conditions saying their services “are not intended for minors under 13.”

Australia has proposed taxing digital giants Meta, Google and TikTok to pay for news reporters.

Under draft legislation published on Tuesday, major platforms that choose not to strike commercial deals with news publishers would have to pay a 2.25 per cent tax on Australian revenue.

Communication Minister Anika Wells said that the income would be distributed among news organisations based on how many journalists each employs.

The platforms claimed the proposal misunderstood the evolving advertising industry and would fail to deliver a sustainable news sector.