Meta is currently lobbying governments globally to enforce strict age verification laws. BUTT for millions of European users Meta continues to hold onto data from accounts created when they were under the age of 13

When people try to delete these "illegal" under 13 accounts usually from their childhood they can be met with "Dark Patterns" if they tried reporting them a lot before to take them down aka broken reporting links that loop back to help pages or verification systems that demand sensitive 3D facial scans and government IDs. Even after providing this private biometric data, many people find their accounts remain locked with their childhood data still sitting on Meta’s servers (I myself as the writer get banned after providing my biometric data which makes it impossible to delete my accounts that are against European laws) 

we are calling on Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd and European regulators to end this "Biometric Trap" We demand an actually functional and fair 3 option system for all accounts suspected or reported as being created under the age of 13:

90 day verification window if an account is suspected to belong to a user under the age of 13: give users 90 days to prove they are currently of legal age using privacy preserving methods (like the upcoming EU Digital Identity Wallet) without requiring "hostage" biometrics just to access the settings of an account if the app thinks you are "suspicious"

Transfer the account: if the user is still under the age of 13 meta must allow them to transfer their messages to Messenger Kids (which is currently unavailable in most of Europe) giving parents the control they are legally entitled to

Automatic deletion: if nothing happens during the 90 day verification window meta must delete all data related to that account

Under the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the GDPR Meta is required to prioritize the "Best Interests of the Child" Currently, they are doing the opposite: making it impossible to leave while demanding more data to stay

for me myself I am fighting to delete my data since 2023 basically daily and since the face scans came out I get locked out when I finish the facial verification and can't delete my own data so its an endless loop and clicking report user as under 13 on the facebook accounts doesn't work cause it redirects me to the help page instead of finishing the report

post under #deleteunder13metaaccounts to spread this

(image by Alexander Shatov)