The European Commission announced yesterday that his long-awaited and controversial application to verify the age of users internet “is technically ready and will soon be available for citizens to use” in their mobile phones, computers y pills.
The technological solution proposed by Brussels responds to growing pressure from a dozen European countries that, like Spainhave been demanding measures to guarantee the protection of the minors in the digital world. That is the mission that has led them to advertise for teenagers and children.
The response of the Community Executive to this concern is not a app unique and closed, but a software open source base that each Member State can adapt to its needs to launch a generic app. Its design, they promise, will be “easy to use.”
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Once deployed by the countries, it will operate as a digital certificate —similar to the one that was activated during the covid pandemic— that will make it possible to demonstrate that users are old enough to legally access online content restricted to adults such as pornography or games of chance.
How will it work?
For practical purposes, the Internet user must download the app enabled by their country, create a local profile and authenticate their identity through two steps: scan the chip integrated in their DAYS o passport and record a video to compare your face with the one on the document. After verifying that he is who he says he is through a technology After biometric analysis, the program will generate a proof of age credential. This identification method will be used to authorize your access to age-restricted services such as those mentioned above.
The European solution will be designed and developed by the Swedish company software Scytáles and the German multinational T-Systems and will be interoperable with future digital identity wallets of the UE (EUDI Wallet), which will be launched at the end of this year. This mobile application will be used to store and share digital documents such as the DNI or driving license, thus streamlining their use in the 27 Member States.
The age verification app will be interoperable with the EU digital identity wallet, planned for the end of 2026
What happens to my privacy?
The president of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyenhas reiterated that the European solution will respect “the highest standards of privacy“, quite a challenge. According to the technical portal enabled by the European Unionthe certificate will not store personal data of the users (name, date of birth or exact age), but only the attestation that they are over a certain age. The app may be adapted to test other age ranges, for example to limit access to digital platforms to those over 16 years of age, as established by the prohibition Spanish announced by Pedro Sanchez.
To do this, the app will use a cryptographic protocol known as (zero-knowledge proof)—in which a third party confirms that the statement is true—to verify identity anonymously. This would guarantee that the Internet user who chooses to legally access betting websites or pornographic content can do so without having their anonymity compromised.
The president of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, during her appearance this Monday. / NICOLAS TUCAT / AFP
Even so, the EU project still has incomplete or unresolved technical details, as they will only be determined when each Member State decides how it deploys and adapts the solution to its legal framework. In addition, online age verification arouses the suspicion of organizations in defense of the digital rights such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which has warned that “age verification systems are, in essence, surveillance“.
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