Meta was charged by European Union (EU) regulators with breaching landmark tech rules after failing to prevent children under 13 from accessing Instagram and Facebook. The European Commission announced on Wednesday that its preliminary investigation found that Meta was violating the Digital Services Act, a law passed in 2022 requiring social media companies to more actively police their platforms. The legislation requires companies to “diligently identify and mitigate the risks” of children under 13 using their services. Regulators say the tech giant failed to meet its own terms and conditions, which set 13 as the minimum age to use Facebook and Instagram safely. According to a report by CNBC , the Commission found that Meta did not have effective systems in place to verify users’ self-declared ages, in breach of online safety rules. When creating an account, minors can enter a false date of birth without any verification checks, according to the Commission.…