Report from Bloomberg
In Brief – European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has introduced a new age-verification app developed by the commission to confirm users’ ages online in a way that also protects their personal data. The app is intended to be a privacy-protecting tool for websites to use to enforce age-based restrictions on online content. Pornography sites will likely to be the first and most certain target, but many expect social media platforms will need to do so soon. The app requires users to verify their identity using official documents such as passports and will function across phones, tablets, and computers. It is intended to provide a harmonized age-verification systems for use across the EU as member states such as France, Spain and Greece incrementally move to block teenagers of various ages from social media sites based on allegations that the platforms are addictive and often harmful. Four pornography websites are already facing Digital Services Act probes alleging that they failed to keep teens off their platforms by relying on ineffective self-attribution of ages.
Context – Online age limits and the technical age verification tools they require are on the march globally. Social media bans get the most attention from the media and politicians, but porn is often the first and easiest target. It was the first step in France and the US, with the Supreme Court backing a Texas age verification mandate. And France and Texas are both already pushing to expand online age limits to social media. Australia’s 16-year-old social media age threshold is the highest profile global example and officials from a growing list of countries are citing it as an inspiration. It’s worth noting that age checks are now also being mandated in Australia for search engines like Google because they can lead users to porn sites. As von der Leyen says that the Commission will explore an EU-wide social media age limit, privacy and civil liberties advocates argue that online age checks are a privacy threat, and cyber experts claim the EU app is easily hacked.