20 Amendments of Stéphanie YON-COURTIN related to 2023/2043(INI)
Amendment 4 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 10 a (new)
Citation 10 a (new)
– having regard to Article 24 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child as elaborated in the UNCRC General Comment No. 25 as regards the digital environment,
Amendment 7 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas many digital services, such as online games, social media, streaming services for films, series or music, online marketplaces or web shops and dating apps are designed to keep users on the platform for as long as possible so as to maximise the time and money they spend there; maximise activity, engagement, content production and data sharing; whereas this applies in specific to data monetizing services; whereas consequently many online services are designed to be as addictive as offer an optimal user experience which leads to a resposnsibleility to prevent harmful behavioural patterns; whereas the terms ‘addictive design’, ‘manipulative design’ or ‘behavioural design’ of online services describe features that lead to behaviour-related forms of digital addiction, such as, ‘excessive or harmful internet use’, ‘smartphone addiction’, ‘technological or internet addiction’, ‘social media addiction’; whereas there is a growing consensus amongresearch from academics show that phenomena, such as ‘social media addiction’ exist; ; whereas further research is needed to better understand the underlying issues, impact of online services and potential solution;
Amendment 13 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
Aa. whereas digital services are not based on the same business model, while some digital services work on data monetization and therefore on the time spent on the application in order to collect data and use it for advertising purposes; other digital services work with subscriptions such as dating apps and streaming services and are not designed to keep users as long as possible on the platform;
Amendment 17 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas 16-24 year-olds spend an average of over seven hours a day on the internet; whereas one in four children and young people display ‘problematic’ or ‘dysfunctional’ smartphone use, meaning behavioural patterns mirroring addiction; whereas research suggests that problematic smartphone use continues to rise; whereas research also suggests that the rise in mental health problems in adolescents might be related to excessive social media use; whereas social media pressure has been identified as one of the top five causes of mental health difficulties for children; whereas gaming addiction is recognised as a mental health disorder by the World Health Organisation;
Amendment 22 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas internet-use-related addiction displays similar side effects to substance-related addictions, including evidence of tolerance and relapse; whereas strict regulation exists for addictive products, such as drugs, alcohol, tobacco and gambling to prevent addiction and protect consumers from harm; whereas problematic smartphone or internet use has been linked to lower life satisfaction and mental health symptoms such as depression, low self-esteem, body-image disorders, eating disorders, anxiety, high levels of perceived stress, neglect of family and friends, loss of self-control, lack of sleep and obsessive-compulsive symptoms, such as compulsive buying among young adults; whereas heavy users of digital media are twice as likely to have mental- health issues, including risk factors for suicide and self-harm; whereas children and young people are more vulnerable to these symptoms; whereas mental-health conditions established in childhood can shape an individual’s subsequent life course; whereas excessive internet use is associated with problems with daily obligations, declining grades, poor school and academic performance or poor job performance; whereas certain services, products or features that may not affect adults can instead be highly risky, addictive or otherwise harmful for children, including because of the cumulative impact of a combination of several features or prolonged impact over time;
Amendment 31 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas addictive design can be seen to have a negative impact on everyone, not just individuals showing problematic usage patterns; whereas addictive design, especially of smartphones and social media, makes it hard to focus on the task in hand owing to distractions such as messages and notifications constantly disrupting peoples’ concentration, even at school or while driving; whereas the addictive design of online services leads to increased pressure to perform and social pressure to be permanently online and connected, increasing the risk of stress and burnout; whereas consumers online are increasingly confronted with an information overload and excessive sensorial stimuli throughout the day, constraining their cognitive ability, and user interfaces offer only limited control over their data; whereas the time people spend behind screens is time not spent being active, moving, being outside, or shutting down and relaxing, all of which are associated with physical and mental well-being as well as crucial for children’s development; whereas adolescents who spend a small amount of time on electronic communication are generally the happiest; whereas people that stop using social media for a week experience significant improvements in well-being;
Amendment 33 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F
Recital F
F. whereas on average, adolescent girls spend more time online, on smartphones, social media and texting than boys; whereas boys spend more time on gaming and electronic devices in general; whereas girls show a stronger association between screen time and poor mental health than boys and are more than twice as likely to have clinically relevant levels of depressive symptoms than boys; whereas addictive online services such as such as Facebook, TikTok and Instagram are often targeted at minors or accessible to children of all ages; whereas all services and products likely to be accessed by children must be safe for them and consider the best interest of the child;
Amendment 39 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H
Recital H
H. whereas addictive design features are often linked to psychosocial patterns playing on consumers’ psychological needs, vulnerabilities and desires, such as social belonging, social anxiety, fear of missing out (encouraged by information being available only temporarily, such as ‘stories’, ‘is typing…’), network effects, the urge to finish tasks in a flow, even if interrupted (endless scrolling, taking a number of seconds to load your newsfeed) and loss of self-control; whereas design features can be addictive for different reasons, such as an intermittent variable reward, leading to a dopamine surge, just like the dynamics of slot machines, such as push notifications, or social reciprocity leading to chemical brain reactions, where on the one hand people receive social gratification, such as likes, and on the other hand people feel social pressure to respond to people, such as with read-receipts; whereas children are more vulnerable to those features, especially in earlier developmental stages;
Amendment 46 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I
Recital I
I. whereas addictive practices have been empirically studied and widely documented and include design features such as ‘infinite scroll’, ‘pull-to-refresh’ page reload, ‘never ending auto-play’ video features, personalised recommendations, ‘recapture notifications’, meaning notifications to regain users’ attention after leaving a service or app, ‘playing by appointment’ at certain moments during the day, design leading to ‘time fog’ causing a diluted perception of time or ‘fake social notifications’ creating the illusion of updates within the user’s social circle online, whereas such features are often to be found in conjunction with personalised elements and manipulate consumers into spending more time on these platforms; whereas other persuasive design features are elements are the ‘like-button’, ‘read- receipt functions’, ‘is typing’ displays, but also the number of followers collected on a platform, the colours platforms use, interaction-based recommendations and personalisation of content, push notifications and time restrictions of content, such as temporarily available stories;
Amendment 50 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital J
Recital J
J. whereas recommender systems, which are based both on personalisation and on interaction such as clicks and likes, represent an important persuasive, addictive or behavioural design feature; whereas suchimultaneously recommender systems are solely aimed at keeping users on the platform and cause harm both to them and society at largecontribute to the functionality of platforms to enhance social interaction;
Amendment 53 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital K
Recital K
K. whereas the addictive design features outlined above cannot be solved simply by imposing time-limits on online services, as this approach shifts the burden onto the individual instead of addressing the core issue of the intentionally addictive design of online services for profit; whereas none of the ‘solutions’ platforms have implemented have led to a serious change or decrease in usage of online services; whereas teenagers do not readily accept parental regulation of their social media use and often find it easy to bypass any technical constraints imposed; whereas measures imposing a burden on the user such as parental controls and digital literacy are complementary to the responsibility of providers to protect and promote children’s rights in the digital environment, notably through safety-by- design measures to ensure that the design of their products and services does not cause negative outcomes for children, whether intentionally or unintentionally;
Amendment 62 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital L
Recital L
L. whereas the Digital Services Act (DSA) already introduces provisions against the use of ‘dark patterns’; but these are limited to choice architecture and influences choices and do not address behavioural design that is addictive per se, moreover they are limited in scope as they only apply to online platforms, not to all online services; whereas the AI Act4 seeks to ban AI systems that deploy subliminal features but is limited to systems that ‘are purposefully manipulative or deploy deceptive techniques’; _________________ 4 Proposal for a regulation laying down harmonised rules on artificial intelligence (artificial intelligence act) (COM(2021)0206).; whereas soon to be finalised AI Act horizontal legislation, as well as sectoral legislation, should be given the necessary time to make an impact and be evaluated in order to identify and address potential gaps in existing frameworks;
Amendment 63 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital L a (new)
Recital L a (new)
Amendment 72 #
1. Is alarmed that platforms and other tech companies exploit psychological vulnerabilities to design digital interfaces for commercial interests that maximise the frequency and duration of user visits, so as to prolong the use of online services and to create engagement with the platform; stresses that addictive design can cause psychological and material harm to consumers; calls on the Commission to urgently closeassess if there are any existing regulatory gaps with regard to consumer vulnerabilities, dark patterns and addictive features of digital services;
Amendment 77 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. StreCalls on the Commission to assess thatwhether despite its legislative efforts in the digital field, such as the DSAigital Services Act (DSA) or the AI Act, the issue of addictive design is not sufficiently covered in existing EU legislation, and if unaddressed could lead to further deterioration in the area of public health, especially affecting minors; considers that if the topic gets further delayed, Parliament should use its right of legislative initiative;
Amendment 81 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Calls on the Commission to presentensure a strong and transparent enforcement of applicable legislation, notably the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Digital Services Act (DSA); calls on the Commission to consider presenting legislation against addictive design if needed; urges the Commission in its review of the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive5 (UCPD), Consumer Rights Directive6 and Unfair Contract Terms Directive7 (Fitness check) to pay particular attention to and tackle the growing issues around the addictive and manipulative design of online services; calls on the Commission to facilitate a meaningful dialogue between all relevant stakeholders; underlines the need to provide suitable fora and sufficient time for this dialogue; _________________ 5 Directive 2005/29/EC of 11 May 2005 concerning unfair business-to-consumer commercial practices in the internal market (OJ L 149, 11.6.2005, p. 22). 6 Directive 2011/83/EU of 25 October 2011 on consumer rights (OJ L 304, 22.11.2011, p. 64). 7 Council Directive 93/13/EEC of 5 April 1993 on unfair terms in consumer contracts (OJ L 95, 21.4.1993, p. 29).
Amendment 96 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Recalls that the Commission assessment on taxonomies of dark patterns clarifies that certain addictive design features are not taken into account in the current legislation, including the infinite scroll and the default auto play function present in services such as YouTube, Netflix, and Spotify; stresses that other addictive design features such as interaction-based recommender systems, constant push notifications or read receipt notifications are not covered by existing legislation either; recalls that the Commission in its Guidance on the interpretation of the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive expressed concern over uncertainty regarding the rules applicable to addictive interface designs;
Amendment 103 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Calls for a ban assessment by the Commission on interaction-based recommender systems, in particular hyper- personalised systems that are designed to be addictive ancould have addictive effects and could keep users on the platform as long as possible rather than to serve users information in a more neutral manner; underlines that it is evident from whistle-blowers’ testimonies that safer alternative recommender systems are possiblecan be employed, such as those based on chronological order, those with more real user control over the content is displayed or those based on more secure settings, but that these alternatives are less profitable for social-media platforms;
Amendment 105 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Calls on the Commission to explore the opportunity to promote opening up the social network infrastructure in order to offer the capacity for users to have access to third party applications or to add external functionalities to the original interfaces and thus depart from the original and addictive aspects of social media;
Amendment 110 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Demands that, in its legislation on addictive design, the Commission puts forward a digital ‘right not to be disturbed’ including design that would turn all attention seeking features off by defaulton the request of consumers;