The European Commission has selected Spain for the pilot project with which it will develop a European tool of accessible on the Internet, such as porn. This is confirmed to El País from the Ministry of Digital Transformation and Public Function, which ensure that, baptized as Beta Digital Portfolio, it is already finished: it has to obtain the security certification of the National Cryptological Center to be able to be launched to the public.
The objective of this EU pilot test is to make sure that the technology that is being developed around age verification, a delicate issue in terms of privacy, is safe and comply with the technical standards required by Brussels. In addition to the Spanish app, the Commission has opted for the versions of France, Greece, Denmark and Italy.
The projects that pass the filter will be able to offer their technical details to the Member States that ask for them to build from it their own tool adapted to their particular casuistry.
The commission made a call in October to select the candidates who will participate in the test. From the department directed by Óscar López, they consider that the fact of having been selected is a boost to one of the key projects of the Ministry.
The president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has demonstrated on several occasions that the protection of minors in the digital environment is a priority for his executive. Already in January 2024 he announced the elaboration of a bill for the integral protection of minors on the Internet, which, and the design of a comprehensive and interministerial strategy. Sanchez warned of an “authentic epidemic of minors who have access to pornographic content.” And gave several figures: “One in four young people under 12 has had or has access and consumes porn. And this is not puritanism. This affects the formation of our adolescents and also the future behaviors they may have in a topic as transcendental as equality,” he said.
This concern is shared by the EU. Yesterday, due to the risk they suppose for minors. On the one hand, focused on the potential irrigation they imply for the protection of minors. On the other, the Member States will focus on taking measures against smaller pages.
Spain leads with France and Greece a proposal to set a minimum age of access to social networks and force all manufacturers of devices with internet access to carry integrated age verification tools and parental control.
Towards a European digital portfolio
European regulations (EIDAS Regulation2) establishes that, as of November 2026, all Member States must provide citizens with the necessary means to be able to identify before the administration and companies in a digital and safe way, particularly when reinforced authentication is required, as required for example the banks. The European digital portfolio will not have to carry out printed documents or have to give data or have to register with user and password every time you want to do an official process.
Spain is one of the first countries that have been put to work in this tool, one of whose uses will also anonymous certify that the user is most. In addition to that, it already incorporates other services, such as the accreditation of university degrees, and more will be added.
The Beta Digital portfolio app stores a majority credential issued by the Government of Spain. Internet platforms can consult it to allow access to adult content. In that process, information about the matter is not exchanged, beyond the fact that it is an adult.
A delay project
The government announced in January last year that it had a plan to combat child access to porn on the Internet. “As a government, we cannot remain impassive at this reality that worries so much to Spanish society, and especially families,” an important part of that plan passed through this tool, which should serve if whoever accesses a porn page is or not of age. The Spanish Agency for Data Protection (AEPD) that was collaborating in the project together with the National Currency and Timbre Factory.
the then Minister José Luis Escrivá said that the objective was to have the application ready in 2024: “We have imposed the objective of having it ready for the end of summer. The tool, which will have as a central point, will comply with those standards, especially those that have to do with the protection of identity, so that the verification of the age is safe and anonymous”.
The experts already raised and sure to identify who accesses a certain page. The great fear of many privacy experts is that age verification systems end the digital anonymity of Internet users. They have reasons for the suspicion of this, while these mechanisms usually manage personal data, which in turn offers the opportunity to hack That sensitive information then extortes users.
