The European Commission has finalised an age verification app for accessing online platforms and social media in the EU, which respects privacy and remains user-friendly, President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Wednesday.
"Our European age verification app is technically ready and will soon be available for citizens to use," said the head of the European Commission in a public statement.
"This app will allow users to prove their age when accessing online platforms, just as shops ask for proof of age from someone buying alcoholic drinks in a shop," she explained.
The Commission says it is following the successful model it developed with the Covid-19 app during the pandemic, which "78 countries across four continents have adopted".
"It will be user-friendly: you download it, set it up using your passport or ID card, and thus prove your age when accessing online services".
This app "meets the highest standards in the world" in terms of confidentiality and privacy, according to Ms von der Leyen. "Users will prove their age without revealing any other personal information. It is completely anonymous. The user cannot be tracked."
'No excuses'
The app will work across multiple devices (smartphones, tablets, laptops, etc.) and its code will be open source, so that anyone can verify it, including the EU’s partner countries around the world.
"Platforms will no longer have any excuses," added Ursula von der Leyen, promising "zero tolerance" for companies that fail to comply with EU legislation protecting children online.
France, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Spain, Cyprus and Ireland are already planning to integrate this app into their digital identity systems.
French President Emmanuel Macron is holding a video conference this Thursday with Ursula von der Leyen and several European leaders to maintain the "pressure" and momentum with a view to "coordinating" measures to ban social media for the youngest users.
In Belgium, there are differences of opinion between governments: Flemish Media Minister Cieltje Van Achter (N-VA) prefers to entrust age verification to the platforms, whilst Federal Digital Minister Vanessa Matz (Engagés) advocates using official apps such as Itsme or MyGov.
Reacting to the Commission’s announcement, Matz believes that the European executive has now "confirmed this choice of a tool that protects users, particularly the youngest, whilst avoiding leaving the responsibility and control of these sensitive mechanisms to the platforms."
"This is an important step towards a coordinated approach. We now need to integrate this into our solutions currently under development and make age verification via these tools mandatory for access to social media," she explains.
On the French-speaking Community (FWB) side, Media Minister Jacqueline Galant (MR) coordinated a joint position last summer with the various ministers concerned (Glatigny, Lescrenier, Coppieters).
Press statement by Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, and Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, on the digital age verification app. Credit: EU
The FWB says it supports the ongoing discussions at European and national levels, "whilst remaining attentive to the implementation details".
"We need a structured approach for the EU’s accreditation of national solutions," emphasised Commission Vice-President Henna Virkkunen, responsible for technological sovereignty.
In her view, Member States must ensure that age identifiers can be issued easily and across the EU. "Above all, to ensure that we continue to build a single solution for the EU, and not 27 different solutions."
With this in mind, Virkkunen announced that she will set up an EU-wide coordination mechanism later this month.
"We have only two conditions: to comply with privacy standards and to ensure that we have the same technical solution across the EU."
