05:16 AM EDT, 04/29/2026 (MT Newswires) -- (Updates with Meta's response in the fourth and fifth paragraph.)

Meta Platforms (META) is under formal EU investigation after the European Commission said it has preliminarily found the company in violation of the Digital Services Act for not adequately preventing children under 13 from accessing Instagram and Facebook, according to a regulatory filing made public Wednesday.

The Commission said Meta's age controls are weak, allowing minors to bypass restrictions by entering false birth dates, while reporting tools are difficult to use and often fail to lead to account removal, and that its risk assessments underestimate underage usage and related harms.

If confirmed, the findings could lead to fines of up to 6% of Meta's global annual revenue and require corrective actions, with the company given the opportunity to respond to the allegations and make changes before a final ruling, it added.

A Meta spokesperson told MT Newswires in an e-mailed statement that it disagrees with the preliminary findings.

"We're clear that Instagram and Facebook are intended for people aged 13 and older and we have measures in place to detect and remove accounts from anyone under that age,"the spokesperson said. "We continue to invest in technologies to find and remove underage users and will have more to share next week about additional measures rolling out soon."