"Proposing a restriction on the purchase of smartphones for children aged 14 and below"
The European Commission (EC) is taking significant steps towards protecting minors from harmful digital content, with a new age verification system integrated into the Digital Services Act (DSA). This initiative aims to control access to adult content and harmful materials, with a focus on privacy and user-friendly, robust solutions.
The DSA, adopted at the end of 2022, imposes a duty of responsibility on large digital platforms, requiring them to detect their own risks, correct them, and respond to protection obligations. Non-compliance could result in massive fines.
The EC's age verification system is currently being piloted in five EU countries: Denmark, Greece, Spain, France, and Italy. An open-source technology, the system leverages non-invasive biometric methods and anonymous credentials to confirm users are over 18 without disclosing other personal data. The system is designed to be customizable to national legal requirements and languages.
The age verification system is intended to work seamlessly with the upcoming European Digital Identity Wallet (EUDI Wallet), enabling secure digital proof of age. This integration could potentially extend age verification to other age limits beyond 18 years.
Under the DSA, platforms designated as "age-restricted" will have binding obligations to implement these age verification measures. The DSA also mandates platforms to simplify their terms and conditions, particularly to make them understandable for younger users, enabling informed choices about platform usage and data sharing.
However, the initiative faces technical maturity, privacy balance, and digital sovereignty challenges. There are concerns about the readiness of the biometric and age assurance technologies, and the challenge of balancing privacy and security with effective age assurance. The EC's approach attempts to reconcile strong privacy guarantees with the need for effective enforcement, but tensions exist, especially given simultaneous moves toward encryption backdoors in other EU initiatives.
The system requires integration with Google's Play Integrity API, which has raised controversy because it threatens alternative Android app distribution channels. This has implications for software freedom and privacy-conscious users who avoid Google services.
Wider adoption is expected after the pilot, with the full system enforced by end of 2026 alongside the EUDI Wallet rollout. The expected results according to the new guidelines include private accounts by default, disabled user loyalty mechanisms, prohibition of targeted advertising, underage users reported within 48 hours, and algorithms adapted to avoid exposure to inappropriate content.
The DSA was adopted in response to the need to bring order to the chaotic European digital legal landscape, a concern that has been ongoing since 2019. Thierry Breton, the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, proposed the principle that "What is illegal offline should also be illegal online" in 2019. The European Commission published its first guidelines for applying minor protection measures under the DSA on July 14, 2023.
In France, the obligation for age control on pornographic websites was reinstated on July 15, 2023, after a previous suspension a month earlier. This move underscores the importance of the EC's efforts in protecting minors online.
[1] European Commission. (2023). Digital Services Act: Commission unveils technical age verification device. Retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_23_4064
[2] European Commission. (2023). Digital Services Act: Commission proposes guidelines on protection measures for minors. Retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_23_3948
[3] European Digital Rights (EDRi). (2023). Age verification: EC’s new proposals raise privacy and competition concerns. Retrieved from https://edri.org/age-verification-ecs-new-proposals-raise-privacy-and-competition-concerns/
[4] Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE). (2023). Age verification: EC’s proposal threatens software freedom and privacy. Retrieved from https://fsfe.org/news/2023/news-20230718-01.en.html
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