In a move not dissimilar to Australia’s social media ban and age verification for age-inappropriate sites, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the new age verification app that she said would give platforms “no more excuses.”
The new initiative works by having users verify their age through the app through setup with a passport or ID card. This then acts as the verification for online services, such as social media platforms.
Von der Leyen says that the app “respects the highest privacy standards in the world.
“Users will prove their age without revealing any other personal information. Put simply, it is completely anonymous: users cannot be tracked.”
This eliminates the risk of data retention from verification, which has been a concern raised in Australia with age verification needing to be done on every platform that falls under the age-restricted criteria.
“Europe offers a free and easy to use solution that can shield our children from harmful and illegal content. And we see more of our Member States making great progress. France, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Spain, Cyprus and Ireland are front runners. They are planning to integrate the app into their national wallets,” Von der Leyen said.
“I hope more Member States and private sectors will follow so that every citizen can soon use the app. This app gives parents, teachers, and caretakers a powerful tool to protect children. Because we will have zero tolerance for companies that do not respect our children's rights.”
According to the statement, the new app is fully open source, works on any device and is easy to use, beyond having the highest standard of privacy anywhere in the world.
In response to Von der Leyen on LinkedIn, Australian eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant celebrated the move by the EU.
“Thank you President Ursula von der Leyen - and also for visiting Australia to communicate the European Commission's steadfast commitment to working in partnership with Australia in implementing social media age restrictions across the EU,” she wrote.
“Despite claims that age assurance technologies don't work (we tested them!) or of premature predictions of the SMAA's demise, we have seen significant progress in just 4 months around this ground breaking cultural reset - we all knew that rolling back 20 years of social media entrenchment was not going to happen overnight,” she added.
“Our survey research of Australian parents found that social media account ownership of under 16's dropped from 49.7% before the restrictions came into effect to 31.3% of under 16s having accounts in this first phase of implementation. This represents a 37% decrease in under 16's having or holding social media accounts. While this represents a snapshot in time, by most estimations, this should be viewed as a substantial and positive start.”
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