Tech giants can easily check age of child users, says Danish minister
'They are the biggest companies in the world, with a bigger economy than most of our countries could ever dream of. I think they will manage to find a solution,' Caroline Stage Olsen said.
On Monday, Stage Olsen together with the EU Technology Commissioner Henna Virkkunen, said five EU countries – Denmark, France, Greece, Italy and Spain – plan work on a customised national age verification application in a bid to shield children from harmful content online.
This app should allow users to easily prove they are over 18 when accessing restricted adult content online. In the long term, the Commission hopes to integrate age verification functionalities within digital identification tools, European Digital Identity Wallets (eID), which will be rolled-out next year.
Big tech companies face increasing pressure to implement age verification tools to combat the spread of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The CSAM regulation, proposed in 2022 and currently under debate in the Council of the EU, also relies heavily on identifying minors online to shield them from predators.
Some companies have now implemented AI powered solutions to tackle the problem, but Stage Olsen said that she is confident online platforms will find the money to work on the tools. 'I'm sure that they will manage to have hired some of the brightest heads in the world concerning technology,' she said.
US tech giant Meta last year proposed a harmonised age verification and safety standard system for apps and online services to the Commission. If an underaged child wants to download an app, app stores would be required to notify their parents under Meta's proposal.
The 27 EU member states are currently free to set their own rules for age verification and there are no EU standards, although some of the EU rules foresee improved age verification to protect minors including the Digital Services Act (DSA) and Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD).
Denmark, which started chairing meetings of EU ministers this month, said it has put several child protection measures on top of the agenda during the country's chairmanship.
'I will use the presidency to put this on top of the agenda and set a clear, political ambition that can shape EU policy in the years to come,' Stage Olsen said.
One way of making the tools mandatory would be introducing these measures in a planned Digital Fairness Act, rules the Commission will put forward early next year to protect consumers online.
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