By Clare Duffy, NCS
New York (NCS) — Europe doesn’t need to hear any extra excuses from tech platforms for why they’ll’t confirm customers’ ages.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday introduced a brand new European age verification app that can give customers a type of digital ID card to show their ages online — with out sharing their delicate private info with each website or app they need to entry.
The transfer comes as tech platforms face rising world stress to higher protect young people online. But some tech leaders have raised sensible and privateness considerations round gathering customers’ delicate info to confirm their ages.
Europe’s new app will present a centralized answer that removes the burden for tech platforms to confirm customers’ ages.
“Online platforms can easily rely on our age verification app. So there are no more excuses,” von der Leyen and EU Commission Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen mentioned in a statement. “Europe offers a free and easy to use solution that can shield our children from harmful and illegal content.”
Users will confirm their age on Europe’s new app by importing a passport or ID card, in accordance to the assertion. Tech platforms can then entry the app to confirm whether or not a person is above or under a sure age — for instance, 16 years outdated or 18 years outdated, relying on native necessities — however the person’s birthdate and different private info gained’t be shared.
Von der Leyen mentioned the app may have the “highest privacy standards in the world” in a Wednesday post on LinkedIn.
Concerns across the impression of tech platforms, particularly social media websites, on young people’s wellbeing have solely escalated since a California jury found Meta and YouTube liable for harming a young lady with addictive options final month. A New Mexico jury individually found Meta liable for enabling little one sexual abuse on its platforms.
Regulators around the globe have pushed tech firms to create extra safeguards for young customers, or to prohibit teenagers from accessing social media altogether.
Australia passed a world-first regulation banning kids underneath 16 from accessing social media in December, and a handful of other countries, together with in Europe, need to comply with swimsuit. In the United States, a number of states have handed laws to power tech platforms to confirm customers’ ages and acquire parental consent when minors create accounts.
But some tech firms have raised sensible and privateness considerations about age verification necessities. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has advocated for app shops to act as age verification clearinghouses that may share age info with app operators; Google and Apple have argued that Zuckerberg’s proposal would power them to acquire pointless private knowledge even from grownup customers who need to entry innocuous apps.
Europe’s new app is “technically ready” and can quickly be obtainable for EU residents, in accordance to the assertion.
Meta, Snap, TikTok and Apple didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon the brand new app. Google declined to remark.
EU member states might be in a position to tailor the app to their home legal guidelines, together with any age-related social media bans, European Commission expertise spokesperson Thomas Regnier informed NCS. Under the EU’s Digital Services Act, which regulates giant tech platforms, websites required to prohibit minor customers is not going to be required to use the brand new app. However, they have to show that their alternate age verification instruments are equally efficient or face sanctions, Regnier mentioned.
“This app gives parents, teachers, caretakers a powerful tool to protect children,” von der Leyen and Virkkunen mentioned. “We will have zero tolerance for companies that do not respect our children’s rights.”
NCS’s Hanna Ziady contributed to this report.
The-NCS-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.