BRUSSELS — The European Commission on Monday released its final, approved guidelines for protecting minors online under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) and made public a “white label” age verification app intended to help sites and platforms comply with age verification rules under the DSA.
As XBIZ reported in May, the Commission solicited public feedback on the guidelines — which include age verification requirements covering adult sites and platforms — prior to finalizing them and releasing the app for testing.
In a statement, the Commission called the prototype app “a compliance example and a reference standard for a device-based method of age verification.” The Commission also stated that the app is intended “to help online platforms implement a user-friendly and privacy-preserving age verification method.”
“It will, for example, allow users to easily prove they are over 18 when accessing restricted adult content online, while remaining in full control of any other personal information, such as a user’s exact age or identity,” the Commission noted. “No one would be able to track, see or reconstruct what content individual users are consulting.”
Unlike most attempts to enforce age verification in the United States, the Commission's guidelines specify “non-intrusiveness” as an important criterion.
The app is now in a “pilot phase,” during which the software will be tried out in the EU member states of Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, and Spain. Those countries are expected to incorporate the app in their digital wallets or publish versions of it on app stores, customized to national needs — though privacy-preserving features cannot be modified.
“Market players can also take up the software solution and further develop it,” the Commission’s statement notes. “In parallel, there will be thorough testing with online platforms, including adult content providers. Online platforms that are not involved yet are invited to participate in the pilot and join the testing phase.”
The Commission called the release “a key step in supporting the implementation of the Digital Services Act” and said that it plans to expand the pilot to other member states and supply “tailored implementation strategies” to facilitate uptake.