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Social media bans on children are increasingly being implemented around the world, with several countries currently trying to follow Australia’s example by blocking teenagers from accessing certain websites and online services. At the same time, the challenge of how to verify with certainty who is a child and who is an adult is one that has not been fully resolved.
The European Union believes it has the answer. The European Commission on Wednesday announced an age verification app that will use legal identity to determine people’s ages and employment via phones, tablets and computers. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement that the app is “technically ready and will soon be available for citizens’ use.” statement.
Several EU member states, including France, Italy, Spain and Greece, have proposed legislation that would protect children from harmful content and prevent them from using social media. Von der Leyen said countries plan to integrate the app into their national digital wallets. “This app gives parents, teachers and caregivers a powerful tool to protect children,” she added.
Europe is not the first region to identify the challenge of online verification. Last year, the UK introduced Internet safety lawwhich puts the onus on internet companies to ensure that children are not exposed to harmful content Australia has imposed a social media banwhich prevented people under the age of 18 from accessing many apps and services. In the days after the legislation came into effect, the number of VPN app downloads have soared In both countries, people tried to circumvent age verification requests.
“This reflects that when young people find regulations disproportionate or intrusive, they will explore alternative solutions,” said Vaishnavi J, founder of youth products consultancy Vys. She added that the motivation to circumvent the verification process is highest when it comes to social media, where people are “enthusiastic and tech-savvy.” “An app that works perfectly technically may fail in practice if the friction experience is not fair or proportional to users.”
Instead of requiring individual tech companies to take responsibility for proving that their users meet age requirements, the EU appears to be taking a more centralized approach. By having one app that works across all services, people would only need to prove their age once to be able to use the internet, which could allay many privacy and security concerns about third-party age verification services.
Via email, J pointed out the distinction between age verification technology using official ID, and age estimation technology that relies on facial analysis or behavioral signals and age inference, which draws from metadata associated with an account – a combination of which is used by different sites and services to determine people’s ages.
“The EU wallet approach is firmly in the verification camp; this may lead to high accuracy but also requires users to have and use a qualified government-issued digital ID,” she said. “This may be fine in some countries but is more complicated in parts of Europe where the digital identity infrastructure is patchy.”
When it comes to other issues related to child safety, the EU is less tolerant in terms of holding individual services to account. Earlier this year, the committee ordered TikTok changes the design of its ‘addictive’ algorithm.Which she said violated the European Union Charter Digital Services Law. If TikTok fails to comply with the order, it could face a fine of up to 6% of its annual global sales.
“We refuse to compromise on the well-being of our children,” said UNHCR Executive Vice President Hina Virkkonen. In a statement Wednesday. “We’re taking similar actions against Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Shein. This year, we’ve also taken action against four porn platforms for the same reasons: they simply don’t have proper age verification tools to keep our kids away from their adult content.”