5 EU states to test age verification app to protect kids
France, Spain, Italy, Denmark and Greece will test a blueprint for an age verification app to protect children online, European Commission said Monday, amid growing global concern about the impact of social media on children's mental health.
The setup for the age verification app is built on the same technical specifications as the European Digital Identity Wallet which will be rolled out next year.
The five countries can customise the model according to their requirements, integrate into a national app or keep it separately. The EU executive also published guidelines for online platforms to take measures to protect minors as part of their compliance with the bloc's Digital Services Act. The landmark legislation, which became applicable last year, requires Alphabet's Google, Meta Platforms, ByteDance's TikTok and other online companies to do more to tackle illegal and harmful online content.
Reuters
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
India reserves right to negate Britain's CBAM impact
The India-UK free trade agreement lacks provisions for Britain's proposed Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). Officials stated that if the UK implements CBAM in the future, India reserves the right to implement measures to mitigate its impact on domestic exports. This understanding, formalized in a note verbale, allows India to counterbalance any trade disadvantages arising from the UK's CBAM. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads New Delhi: The India-UK free trade agreement does not include a provision on Britain's proposed Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) but if such a tax is imposed in the future, India will have the right to take steps to mitigate its impact on domestic exports, officials said is not in the pact as Britain has not yet notified the UK had in December 2023 decided to implement CBAM from issue was flagged during the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) negotiations."If it is implemented and negates the trade benefits of India under the agreement, India will have the freedom to rebalance it. We can take counterbalancing measures. This much understanding has been made in the form of note verbale," said an official.A note verbale is a diplomatic communication between two countries."There is an understanding that in case the UK make it effective against India in future, then we will also have the right to take counterbalance measures... India can take away the concessions and there will be a mechanism for that," the official is also in talks with the EU, which also plans to put in a CBAM. The two sides are negotiating a trade pact, which is likely to be concluded this year. India has termed the CBAM a trade barrier.
Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
EU sanctions Indian arm of UAE-based shipping company
New Delhi: Intershipping Services Hub Private Ltd , the Indian branch of the United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based entity, has been sanctioned by the European Union (EU). Captain Abhinav Kamal, the Indian-origin captain of crude oil tanker Argent also faces sanctions, the first and the only Indian to be sanctioned by the EU in connection with the Russia-Ukraine conflict , according to sector watchers. The company is under fire for providing cover to ships engaged in trade with Russian entities . The sanctions are not extraterritorial and only apply to EU citizens, territory and companies. The Indian government too maintains it does not subscribe to any unilateral sanction measures. Explore courses from Top Institutes in Please select course: Select a Course Category Cybersecurity Design Thinking Finance Product Management Degree healthcare CXO others Data Analytics Digital Marketing Management Leadership Technology Data Science Healthcare MBA PGDM Operations Management Others Project Management Public Policy Artificial Intelligence Data Science MCA Skills you'll gain: Duration: 10 Months MIT xPRO CERT-MIT xPRO PGC in Cybersecurity Starts on undefined Get Details "This means the assets that Intershipping Services LLC holds in Europe will be frozen and European citizens and companies cannot make money available to it, hence cannot do business," an EU official told ET on condition of anonymity. Since the sanctions do not apply to any non-EU entities doing business with Intershipping Services Hub, the company can court non-EU suitors, said the people cited earlier. However, Kamal may find the going tough since the global maritime industry has vast linkages with the EU, they said. Now, Kamal cannot board or provide services to any of these EU associated vessels. The bloc has accused Kamal of providing material, technical or financial support to the operations of a vessel that transports Russia-linked crude oil or petroleum products. Live Events Economic Times WhatsApp channel )
NDTV
2 hours ago
- NDTV
Trump's Trip To Scotland As His New Golf Course Opens Blurs Politics, Family's Business
Edinburgh: Lashed by cold winds and overlooking choppy, steel-gray North Sea waters, the breathtaking sand dunes of Scotland's northeastern coast rank among Donald Trump's favorite spots on earth. "At some point, maybe in my very old age, I'll go there and do the most beautiful thing you've ever seen," Trump said in 2023, during his New York civil fraud trial, talking about his plans for future developments on his property in Balmedie, Aberdeenshire. At 79 and back in the White House, Trump is making at least part of that pledge a reality, traveling to Scotland on Friday as his family's business prepares for the Aug. 13 opening of a new course it's billing as "the greatest 36 holes in golf." Trump will be in Scotland until Tuesday and plans to talk trade with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The Aberdeen area is already home to another of his courses, Trump International Scotland, and the Republican president also plans to visit a Trump course near Turnberry, around 200 miles (320 kilometers) away on Scotland's southwest coast. Using a presidential overseas trip - with its sprawling entourage of advisers, White House and support staffers, Secret Service agents and reporters - to help show off Trump-brand golf destinations demonstrates how the president has become increasingly comfortable intermingling his governing pursuits with promoting his family's business interests. The White House has brushed off questions about potential conflicts of interest, arguing Trump's business success before he entered politics was a key to his appeal with voters. White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers called the Scotland swing a "working trip." But she added Trump "has built the best and most beautiful world-class golf courses anywhere in the world, which is why they continue to be used for prestigious tournaments and by the most elite players in the sport." Trump went to Scotland to play his Turnberry course during his first term in 2018 while en route to a meeting in Finland with Russian President Vladimir Putin. This time, his trip comes as the new golf course is about to debut and is already actively selling tee times. It's not cheap for the president to travel. The helicopters that operate as Marine One when the president is on board cost between $16,700 and nearly $20,000 per hour to operate, according to Pentagon data for fiscal year 2022. The modified Boeing 747s that serve as the iconic Air Force One cost about $200,000 per hour to fly. That's not to mention the military cargo aircraft that fly ahead of the president with his armored limousines and other official vehicles. "We're at a point where the Trump administration is so intertwined with the Trump business that he doesn't seem to see much of a difference," said Jordan Libowitz, vice president for the ethics watchdog organization Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "It's as if the White House were almost an arm of the Trump Organization." During his first term, the Trump Organization signed an ethics pact barring deals with foreign companies. An ethics frameworks for Trump's second term allows them. Trump's assets are in a trust run by his children, who are also handling day-to-day operations of the Trump Organization while he's in the White House. The company has inked many recent, lucrative foreign agreements involving golf courses, including plans to build luxury developments in Qatar and Vietnam, even as the administration negotiates tariff rates for those countries and around the globe. Trump's existing Aberdeenshire course, meanwhile, has a history nearly as rocky as the area's cliffs. It has struggled to turn a profit and was found by Scottish conservation authorities to have partially destroyed nearby sand dunes. Trump's company also was ordered to cover the Scottish government's legal costs after the course unsuccessfully sued over the construction of a nearby wind farm, arguing in part that it hurt golfers' views. And the development was part of the massive civil case, which accused Trump of inflating his wealth to secure loans and make business deals. Trump's company's initial plans for his first Aberdeen-area course called for a luxury hotel and nearby housing. His company received permission to build 500 houses, but Trump suggested he'd be allowed to build five times as many and borrowed against their values without actually building any homes, the lawsuit alleged. Judge Arthur Engoron found Trump liable last year and ordered his company to pay $355 million in fines - a judgment that has grown with interest to more than $510 million as Trump appeals. Family financial interests aside, Trump isn't the first sitting U.S. president to golf in Scotland. That was Dwight D. Eisenhower, who played in Turnberry in 1959. George W. Bush visited the famed course at Gleneagles in 2005 but didn't play. Many historians trace golf back to Scotland in the Middle Ages. Among the earliest known references to game was a Scottish Parliament resolution in 1457 that tried to ban it, along with soccer, because of fears both were distracting men from practicing archery - then considered vital to national defense. The first U.S. president to golf regularly was William Howard Taft, who served from 1909 to 1913 and ignored warnings from his predecessor, Teddy Roosevelt, that playing too much would make it seem like he wasn't working hard enough. Woodrow Wilson played nearly every day but Sundays, and even had the Secret Service paint his golf balls red so he could practice in the snow, said Mike Trostel, director of the World Golf Hall of Fame. Warren G. Harding trained his dog Laddie Boy to fetch golf balls while he practiced. Lyndon B. Johnson's swing was sometimes described as looking like a man trying to kill a rattlesnake. Bill Clinton, who liked to joke that he was the only president whose game improved while in office, restored a putting green on the White House's South Lawn. It was originally installed by Eisenhower, who was such an avid user that he left cleat marks in the wooden floors of the Oval Office by the door leading out to it. Bush stopped golfing after the start of the Iraq war in 2003 because of the optics. Barack Obama had a golf simulator installed in the White House that Trump upgraded during his first term, Trostel said. John F. Kennedy largely hid his love of the game as president, but he played on Harvard's golf team and nearly made a hole-in-one at California's renowned Cypress Point Golf Club just before the 1960 Democratic National Convention. "I'd say, between President Trump and President John F. Kennedy, those are two of the most skilled golfers we've had in the White House," Trostel said. Trump, Trostel said, has a handicap index - how many strokes above par a golfer is likely to score - of a very strong 2.5, though he's not posted an official round with the U.S. Golf Association since 2021. That's better than Joe Biden's handicap of 6.7, which also might be outdated, and Obama, who once described his own handicap as an "honest 13." The White House described Trump as a championship-level golfer but said he plays with no handicap.
