Remarks by Executive Vice-President Virkkunen on the EU age verification app

Protection of minors

I will focus on a topic that is very high on Commission's agenda: protection of children online.

We are already frontrunners in creating a safer online world for minors. For example:

• With the Digital Services Act, its guidelines and enforcement actions.
• Our Action Plan against Cyberbullying.
• And the Better Internet for Kids strategy.

But more needs to be done.

Yesterday we agreed on a next important piece of the puzzle.

After finalising the technical work on the European Age Verification Solution, it is now ready for Member States to customise and roll out.

Why is this solution important?

Because it will help to ensure that everyone has the same online access, dependent on national rules.

It will allow everyone to keep browsing the Internet in full privacy, while ensuring that children do not have access to content that is not meant for them.

Today we have adopted a Recommendation that sets out clear expectations for Member States.

To accelerate the adoption of age verification tools, so that people across Europe can count on safe, secure, privacy-preserving solutions.

At the same time, we will set up an Age Verification Scheme. The scheme sets criteria for those who can provide proof of age, and those who can develop age verification solutions.

Based on these criteria we will assess potential providers and publish lists of providers that meet our high privacy and security standards.

At the informal Telecom Council in Cyprus tomorrow, I will be meeting with Member States to discuss our recommendations.

Preliminary findings on DSA

And the age verification solution goes hand in hand with our DSA enforcement.

Today, the Commission has preliminarily found Instagram and Facebook in breach of the DSA, for failing to prevent minors under the age of 13 from accessing their services.

Meta's own terms and rules indicate that Instagram and Facebook are not meant for minors under 13.
Yet, our preliminary findings show that Meta is doing very little to prevent children below this age from accessing these platforms.

We know that in the EU some 12 % of children under 13 use Instagram or Facebook. Yet, Meta failed to identify, assess and mitigate the risks for minors.

Poor mitigating measures expose under 13-year-old users to online dangers - such as cyberbullying, grooming, or age-inappropriate experiences.

Our preliminary findings indicate that, when creating an account, minors under 13 can bypass age restrictions easily: by simply entering a false birth date. With no effective controls in place by Meta to check if this self-declaration is correct.

We also concluded that the tool for reporting minors under 13 is not easy to use, and often there is no proper follow-up. The reported minor can simply continue to use the service.