Recital 27

Certain design features of online social networking services and of video-sharing platform services may exploit minors’ vulnerabilities and contribute to extensive or excessive use of the service, compulsive behavioural patterns or addiction-like behaviour, with adverse effects on minors’ mental, emotional and physical well-being. Such features may include uninterrupted content consumption without effective stopping points, autoplay, autoscroll, autoreplay, infinite scroll, notifications artificially timed to regain attention, reward mechanisms encouraging repeated engagement, or mechanisms penalising the recipient of the service for not returning at regular intervals. Providers of online social networking services and video-sharing platform services should therefore not expose minors to manipulative or persuasive design features predominantly aimed at maximising engagement where those features may impair minors’ privacy, safety or security or undermine their autonomy. Providers of online social networking services and of video-sharing platform services should not undermine the minor’s decision to discontinue use or the absence of decision to use the service, such as notifications not triggered by, or not directly related to, the minor’s interaction or activity on the service. This should cover situations where the platform changes behaviour towards users when users do not use the service. As such, this would cover features which attempt to recapture user attention once lost, such as sending notifications about rewards for continuing to use the service. The providers should also not incentivise engagement at regular times or with greater frequency, including through penalties or loss of benefits for failing to engage regularly or within specified time intervals. The providers should implement age-appropriate time-management and agency-enhancing tools, including visible prompts, reminders and other measures that support informed and deliberate use of the service enabling effective interruption of the use of the service. As time-management tools are often overridden by the minors themselves, providers should ensure these measures are effective in reducing minors use of the service and not easily circumvented. Such tools should also ensure that minors’ sleep needs are not impaired by their use of the service. That should include effectively preventing minors from using the service during their school time and core sleep hours, which should be age-appropriate, in accordance with scientific recommendations. Core sleep hours should be understood as the period of the night during which minors are ordinarily expected to sleep, comprising at least eight consecutive hours between 22:00 and 08:00 local time. School time should be understood as the period during which minors are ordinarily expected to attend school or otherwise participate in compulsory educational activities, in accordance with applicable national law or practice and subject to adjustment by guardians.