Article 10Recommender systems

1. Providers of online social networking services and of video-sharing platform services that use recommender systems shall design the information suggested and the optimisation of their recommender systems to minors in way that ensures a high level of privacy, safety and security of minors.

2. For the purpose of complying with the obligations set out in paragraph 1 of this Article, providers of online social networking services and of video-sharing platform services that use recommender systems shall ensure that the recommender system optimisation does not exploit minor’s vulnerability or attention and that it includes evaluation metrics capturing quality, safety and mental health outcomes for minors, by taking at least the following measures:

• (a)
  ensure that the recommender systems give priority and primary weight to explicit user-stated preferences when suggesting information;
• (b)
  disable by default the recommendation of information suggested by the recommender system based on implicit engagement-based signals from minors’ behaviour online;
• (c)
  ensure that the recommender systems do not rely on the collection of any personal data of minors captured from outside the service;
• (d)
  ensure that minors are not exposed to information suggested by the recommender systems that may pose a risk to their privacy, safety and security, including if encountered repeatedly.

3. Providers of online social networking services and of video-sharing platform services that use recommender systems shall provide and prominently display tools that enable minors to:

• (a)
  modify or control the parameters of the recommender system, including by easily deleting all previous identified preferences;
• (b)
  choose at least one option of the recommender systems which is not based on profiling as defined in Article 4, point (4), of Regulation (EU) 2016/679.

Tools referred to in the first subparagraph shall not be designed in a manner to entice minors into choosing the option based on profiling, shall be offered during account creation and shall remain directly accessible from the specific section of the service’s online interface where the information is being prioritised, including for recipients of the service without an account.