DUBLIN, Ireland: A group that represents children has raised concerns about early findings against the "addictive" design of Facebook and Instagram.

The European Commission said this week that it had reached a preliminary view that features such as infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications, and highly personalized recommendations can lead to unhealthy habits and compulsive use.

The Commission said Meta could be breaking the Digital Services Act. It added that Meta's efforts to reduce risks had not worked well and that the company might need to turn off autoplay and infinite scroll by default and introduce proper screen-time breaks.

Meta now has a chance to respond before the Commission makes a final decision. The decision could lead to a fine of up to six percent of the company's annual global revenue.

Meta said the early findings did not fully recognize the steps it had already taken and its commitment to protecting teenage users.

The Children's Rights Alliance, an independent organization representing children and young people, said it was very concerned about the findings.

Noeline Blackwell, online safety coordinator with the group, said the findings strengthened calls from the alliance and others, including parents and young people, for stronger regulation of harmful online content.

She also said the Commission had found that Meta ignored evidence about how much time children and young people spend on Instagram and Facebook at night, and how the platforms' design encourages excessive and compulsive use.

She said that although the investigation was not finished, it was now up to Meta to take action.

She welcomed the Commission's proposal to disable key addictive features.

She added that stronger measures were needed, calling for a safety-by-design approach so that major tech companies address harms on their platforms.

She said this was already the standard for most other products in the European Union and questioned why large tech companies should be treated differently.

She added that while it may take time to hold these platforms fully accountable, they should at least be responsible for harm caused by their own design.