MEP Alex Agius Saliba has raised the alarm about digital addiction and called for new EU rules to make platforms less addictive.
He noted the addictive nature of certain digital services, such as online games, social media, streaming services, and online marketplaces saying these exploited people’s vulnerabilities to capture their attention and monetise on their data.
“Digital addiction exists and is a real problem. Manipulative and addictive designs or behavioural designs are hugely damaging and contribute to mental health issues causing behaviour-related risks and harms, including forms of digital addiction, in particular among children and young people," he said.
Agius Saliba said that one day after 41 US states started suing Meta, claiming Instagram and Facebook are addictive and harm kids, MEPs in the European Parliament's Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee adopted a report looking into online services, their addictive designs, and the damning picture of the mental health consequences of excessive screen time.
The report, calling for new EU rules to address the problem, represented the first significant effort at European level to tackle digital manipulative designs and their impact on people and children’s mental health.
As the S&D negotiator for the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee Report, Agius Saliba commented after the vote that many online services, games, social media, streaming sites, or online marketplaces are designed to keep their users hooked on scrolling and the damage of such practices is real.
Agius Saliba noted that many have become addicted to their phones, and the EU needs to act now to help people break this cycle, adding that no self-discipline can tackle the addictive design that citizens are being subjected to.
He highlighted the impact of digital addiction on children and adolescents, affecting their attention span and brain development from a young age.
The report also puts forward a “digital right not to be disturbed” and creates a list of good design practices which will have immediate benefits, like turning off all notifications by default, an easy choice between colour and greyscale, and warnings when users spend too long looking at the screen.