'' ADDICTIVE DESIGN '' ADMONISH : EU ' TIKTOK ' ESSAY

BRUSSELS - BELGIUM : EU demands TikTok change its '' addictive design.'' And accuses Chinese owned platform of violating its digital content rules.

The EU said Friday that it told TikTok it needs to change its '' addictive design '' or risk heavy fines, after the Chinese-owned platform was found in breach of the block's digital content rules.

The European Commission, announcing preliminary conclusions of a probe opened two years ago, said it found TikTok was not taking effective steps to address negative impacts from some of its features, especially for young people and children.

It said TikTok was believed to be in breach of the Digital Services Act for its addictive design '' including through features such as infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications, and a highly personalised recommender system."

The commission said its probe so far indicated that TikTok did too little to '' assess how these addictive features could harm the physical and mental well being of its users, including minors and vulnerable adults."

The commission gave examples of what the platform could alter, such as : the platform's '' infinite scroll '' offering users an uninterrupted feed - implementing effective '' screen time breaks'', including during the night.

Adapting its recommender system, the algorithms used by the platform to feed users more personalized content, ' Compulsive use ' of TikTok.

Brussels accused TikTok of disregarding "important indicators of compulsive use of the app" such as the time spent on the platform by children at night.

It also said TikTok had not implemented effective measures to mitigate risks, taking particular aim at screen time management and parental control tools.

The commission found that TikTok's time management tools were " easy to dismiss " including for young users, while parental controls required " additional time and skills from parents to introduce " them.

'Extremely cooperative'

The findings come as several European countries move to curb access to social media for younger teenagers — with officials weighing whether it is time to follow suit at EU level.

The World Students Society thanks AFP.