The Commission has unveiled guidelines for online platforms on how to protect minors online, as well as a prototype of an age verification app, under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA).
The DSA compliance support package follows a draft version of the guidelines the Commission put out back in May. The final guidelines cover a wide range of child safeguarding issues – including addictive design, harmful and inappropriate content, unwanted contact from strangers and cyberbullying.
Recommendations include platforms setting kids’ accounts to the highest level of privacy-by-default and disabling risky settings such as geo-locking.
Today the Commission also clarified that the guidelines apply to platforms of all sizes. The document provides “very concrete” guidance across all aspects of platforms’ potential operations, a Commission official suggested in a press briefing on Monday.
The EU’s executive has used a risk-based approach for the guidelines, with – for example – websites selling alcohol, drugs or access to pornography or gambling content being labelled as “high-risk” and expected to use the strictest age verification methods.
At the same time, a Commission press release said it expects any age assurance method that’s used for child protection purposes to be accurate, reliable, robust, non-intrusive and non-discriminatory.
While parental controls are considered an important component of minor protection online, a Commission official confirmed that offering such features remains optional for platforms. The remarks come at a time when Meta is running an ongoing campaign lobbying for parental controls to play a stronger role in online child safeguarding.
Commission age-verification app “prototype”
The Commission also announced a prototype of an age verification app that it’s presenting as a “gold standard” for carrying out online age checks.
The blueprint includes a technical specification that’s available online, under an open-source license, meaning other providers can review and use the code.
The Commission’s prototype app is meant to check that a user’s age is above 18 but it clarified the software can be adapted for other age ranges – something that certain EU countries, most notably France, have called for in the case of access to social media.
The age verification app will now be tested by five EU countries – Denmark, France, Greece, Italy and Spain. They will be able to customise the prototype, such as to integrate it into a national app or offering it as a free-standing app, according to the Commission.
The guidelines and the app are supposed to be reviewed in 12 months, per the Commission official.
(nl)
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