The European Commission warned this Wednesday, April 15, that it will have “zero tolerance” with digital platforms that do not use the new European mobile application to confirm the minimum age to access social networks, which is already technically ready.
“Our European age verification app is technically ready and will soon be available for citizens to use,” announced the president of the community executive, Ursula von der Leyen, in a no-questions-asked press conference in Brussels.
The person responsible said that the objective of this tool – similar to the one created as a digital passport during the covid-19 pandemic – is to “hold responsible online platforms that do not sufficiently protect minors”, in an allusion to technological ‘giants’ such as Meta (owner of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads), Alphabet (which owns YouTube), ByteDance (from TikTok) and Snap Inc. (from Snapchat).
“This application gives parents, teachers and caregivers a powerful tool to protect children because we will have zero tolerance for companies that do not respect the rights of our children. That is why we are moving forward with all speed and determination in the application of our European rules”, he highlighted.
According to Ursula von der Leyen, “online platforms can easily resort to age verification, so there are no longer any excuses”, as the EU will now offer “a free and easy-to-use solution that can protect children from harmful and illegal content”.
At stake is a new mobile application developed by Brussels to confirm the minimum age to access social networks, which protects children and teenagers from inappropriate content, works in a safe, simple and anonymous way and aims to comply with age rules without exposing personal data.
The application will provide several solutions to protect minors in the digital environment, such as secure age verification through CPF or passport and automatic blocking of access to users who are not old enough, in order to protect against harmful content, violence, sexualization and misinformation, while contributing to reducing the risk of contact with predators on the internet.
“Children’s rights in the European Union are above commercial interests, and we will ensure that this continues to be the case”, concluded Von der Leyen, whilst stressing that “it is up to parents to educate their children and not the platforms”.
At the end of March, the executive vice-president of the European Commission for Technological Sovereignty, Security and Democracy of the European Commission, Henna Virkkunen, announced in an interview with Lusa and other European agencies that the EU will have available, next autumn, an age verification mobile application to prevent access to inappropriate content on social networks, with the finalization of how authentication will be carried out.
In July last year, the European Commission began, together with some countries, testing this age verification mobile application to prevent access to inappropriate content on social networks.
The application, based on the same technology as the EU’s digital wallet and available for mobile phones, tablets and computers, will allow online service providers to verify that users are 18 years of age or over without compromising their privacy, reinforcing the protection of minors in the digital sphere.
The EU has become the world’s first jurisdiction with rules for digital platforms, which are now required to remove illegal and harmful content.
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