Will the European Union follow the American model regarding young people’s use of social networks? On Wednesday, the Meta group (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger) signed a historic agreement with nearly fifty American states to regulate Instagram and Facebook for under-18s. This amicable agreement, accompanied by the settlement of a fine of 16.7 billion dollars, allows the American digital giant to close the legal proceedings initiated by these states, accusing it of having designed addictive platforms for adolescents, lied about their effects and violated a federal law on the data of under 13s, supposed to be absent from the platforms.
For Alexandre Archambault, a lawyer specializing in digital issues, the shift is major: “American prosecutors have done a very good job, scientifically documented, to prove that the effects of social networks on young people are indeed a question of public health. The Americans’ initiative on this subject should inspire us. » She did not fail to provoke a reaction even at the UN, which on Thursday called for rules to protect children on all social networks.
The puzzle of enforcement on American territory
The American states’ agreement with Meta imposes unprecedented restrictions on those under 18: digital curfew from midnight to 6 a.m. and connection time limited to two cumulative hours per day. It remains to be applied in practice and the questions remain numerous.
In the United States, child welfare depends on each federal state. Without a comprehensive federal law, a teenager stuck in one state could regain full access by crossing the border or managing to connect outside of their state, or even abroad, through a VPN for example. This creates a technical challenge for Meta because at the moment no terms on how the age of users would be verified have been confirmed. This problem is all the more important since not all American states have signed the agreement with Meta and it is extremely complex for a social network to distinguish treatment from one state to another. For Alexandre Archambault, “this should be played out on a continental scale. We can clearly see that the national scale is no longer effective in weighing against the large platforms.”
French impasse and European leverage
The specialist lawyer mentions, as an example, the case of France, which has just failed to ban social networks to under 15s. Supported by Emmanuel Macron, the French law was censored on August 14 by the Constitutional Council for violating freedom of expression. For Alexandre Archambault, the method is in question: “Through his personal initiatives on a French scale, by putting forward such texts or by arresting CEOs as they exit the plane (referring to Pavel Durov, boss of Telegram, Editor’s note), Emmanuel Macron, is smoothing the surface on which the European Commission is working. »
In European legislation, digital technology falls within the competence of the EU. The latter is preparing a harmonized text for a “progressive digital childhood”. Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, is due to reveal more details during her back-to-school speech on September 16.
In any case, the Meta group is also the subject of similar investigations on a European scale. The spokesperson for the European Commission, Thomas Régnier, approves the agreement between Meta and the American states and “also wants European children to be protected”. Alexandre Archambault warns, however: “We must be vigilant and not have the opposite effect on prohibition, because the temptation is there, even for liberal and democratic regimes, to slide towards a more authoritarian regime. »
