BRUSSELS: The EU Friday demanded digital giants including Snapchat and YouTube explain how they are protecting children from online harm, as member states explore restricting minors&#39; access to social media at a European level. The European Union has stringent rules regulating the digital space, including what children should be able to see, but there is increasing concern that more needs doing to tackle the issue. Inspired by Australia&#39;s social media ban for under-16s, Brussels is analyzing whether such a measure could work in the 27-country bloc after several states, including France and Spain, pushed for limits on minors&#39; access to platforms. Digital Services Act&nbsp;Europe&#39;s biggest weapon for ensuring platforms tackle illegal content and keep children safe online is the Digital Services Act, which has sparked censorship claims from the US tech sector and retaliation threats from President Donald Trump. Now, as part of &quot;investigative actions&quot; under the DSA, the European Commission has sent a request for information to Snapchat about what steps it is taking to prevent access for children under 13. The commission has also asked Apple&#39;s App Store and the Google Play marketplace to provide details on measures taken to prevent children downloading illegal or harmful apps -- for example, those with gambling services or sexual content. The EU wants to know in particular how Apple and Google stop children downloading tools to create non-consensual sexualized content as well as how they apply apps&#39; age ratings. &quot;Privacy, security and safety have to be ensured, and this is not always the case, and that&#39;s why the commission is tightening the enforcement of our rules,&quot; tech chief Henna Virkkunen said before EU ministers met in Denmark. A request for information can lead to probes and even fines, but does not in itself suggest the law has been broken, nor is it a move towards punishment. Winds of change&nbsp;Regarding Snapchat, Brussels wants to know how the messaging app stops users from buying drugs and vapes, a claim echoed by Danish Digital Minister Caroline Stage Olsen on Friday. It also wants YouTube to provide details on its recommender system, &quot;following reporting of harmful content being disseminated to minors&quot;, the commission said.The demands are not the first under the DSA. The EU is also probing Meta&#39;s Facebook and Instagram, as well as TikTok, over fears they are not doing enough to combat the addictive nature of their platforms for children. In a parallel push on child protection, EU telecoms ministers will Friday discuss age verification on social media and what steps they can take to make the world online safer for minors. They are expected to agree on a joint statement backing EU chief Ursula von der Leyen&#39;s plans to study a potential bloc-wide digital majority age, according to a draft document seen by AFP. Ban on social media&nbsp;Von der Leyen has voiced personal support for such a move, and said last month she would establish an experts&#39; panel &quot;to assess what steps make sense&quot; at the EU level. Denmark, in charge of the rotating six-month EU presidency, has been pushing the bloc to take more collective action through new rules. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Tuesday Denmark planned to introduce a ban on social media for children under the age of 15. France already has a law requiring parental consent for social media users under the age of 15.

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The EU is pressuring tech giants such as Apple, Snapchat, and YouTube to explain how they protect children online, amid rising concerns and proposals for age restrictions and stricter enforcement under the Digital Services Act.

EU grills Apple, Snapchat, YouTube over risks to children

BOGOTA: The YouTube account of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro&nbsp;was offline Saturday, with Venezuelan state-run channel Telesur claiming in a message on X that it was &ldquo;eliminated&rdquo; late the previous night without justification.&nbsp;YouTube&rsquo;s parent company Google did not immediately respond to questions on the apparent termination of the Venezuelan president&rsquo;s account. It comes amid rising tensions between Venezuela and the United States over the deployment of American warships and fighter jets in the southern Caribbean.&nbsp;Maduro&rsquo;s YouTube account had more than 200,000 followers before it became unavailable on Friday and was used to publish the Venezuelan president&rsquo;s speeches, as well as clips from his weekly show on Venezuelan state TV.&nbsp;On its website, YouTube states that it eliminates accounts that commit &ldquo;repeated violations of community guidelines,&rdquo; which include publishing misinformation, hate speech, and content that &ldquo;interferes with democratic processes.&rdquo;&nbsp;Maduro has been widely accused of stealing last year&rsquo;s presidential election in Venezuela, which he lost by a landslide according to tally sheets gathered by hundreds of Venezuelan opposition activists. Venezuela&rsquo;s elections agency, which the ruling socialist party controls, never published tally sheets to support its claim that Maduro won the vote.&nbsp;In 2020, Maduro was indicted by a federal court in New York, where he has been charged with conspiring to traffic cocaine to the United States.&nbsp;&nbsp;Recently, the US doubled a bounty payment for Maduro&rsquo;s capture to $50 million, with White House officials often referring to Maduro as a drug cartel leader who must be brought to justice.&nbsp;While Venezuela continues to sell oil to the United States and take deportation flights, relations between the two nations have worsened with the deployment of eight US warships last month to an area of the southern Caribbean near Venezuela&rsquo;s coast.&nbsp;The Trump administration says the ships, which are fitted with long-range missiles and are also transporting a landing force of 2,000 Marines, are on an anti-drug trafficking mission.&nbsp;But Venezuela&rsquo;s government has described the deployment as an attack on the nation&rsquo;s sovereignty and part of an effort to overthrow Maduro&rsquo;s government.&nbsp;The US flotilla has destroyed three speedboats allegedly carrying drugs so far, according to the White House, killing more than a dozen people on board the small vessels.

Americas

YouTube account of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was offline Saturday, with Venezuelan state-run channel Telesur claiming in a message on X that it was “eliminated”

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EU grills Apple, Snapchat, YouTube over risks to children

Venezuelan president's YouTube account offline as tensions with US escalate