Renew Europe urges EU to protect young people from addictive social media

The Renew Europe group in the European Parliament is calling for the European Commission to use its full legislative power, including the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Digital Services Act (DSA), and the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act), to mitigate the detrimental impact of social media platforms on young people's mental health. Their stance follows scientific evidence suggesting intensive social media use harms adolescents' developing brains and coincides with a growing consensus in Brussels on the need for action.

A position paper from the group proposes several regulatory measures, starting with demands to address addictive algorithms by clarifying existing rules on dark patterns. Renew also seeks mandatory child-safe defaults, such as limits on nighttime notifications, automatic deactivation of continuous video playback, and the removal of filters linked to body image risks.

Furthermore, the group called for an EU-wide age verification mechanism, built on the European Digital Identity Wallet, and suggested exploring a standardised minimum age or tiered age limits for social media use. MEP Veronika Ostrihoňová stressed the urgency of the issue, stating that social media addiction should be recognised as a public health concern, and platforms that profit from children's vulnerability must be held accountable.