European age-verification app for children: What is it, how does it work & how does it differ from Australia? Explained
The European Commission proposed prohibiting children under 13 from using social media, while allowing those aged 13 to 15 to access platforms through accounts supervised by their parents. ‘Online platforms can easily rely on our age verification app,’ Ursula von der Leyen said.
The European Commission has proposed a new regulation that would restrict children under 13 from accessing social media platforms, while allowing those aged up to 15 to use them under parental oversight. To enforce this, a free, open-source age-verification application will be deployed across EU member states by the end of 2026.
This tool will enable platforms to verify users' ages without revealing their identities, and it can also be used to confirm that users are over 18 when accessing adult websites. The European Commission will oversee the development of the software and technical standards, while individual member states will administer the system through designated issuers, such as digital identity services, banks, or post offices.
Users will verify their age once through these issuers, and the system will operate on a decentralized model, ensuring that age-verification credentials are not stored in a central EU database. This approach differs from Australia's method, where social media companies are left to create their own age-checking mechanisms, relying on commercial providers to verify users' ages.
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