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EU ID App for Minors: EU Commission Gets Serious About Youth Protection
Commission President von der Leyen announces a ready solution for age verification that will enable anonymous surfing and hold platforms accountable.
The era of non-binding appeals to large tech corporations seems to be over in Brussels. In a joint statement on Wednesday, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (CDU) and Vice-President Henna Virkkunen, responsible for tech sovereignty, gave the green light for a new era of digital youth protection. The core of the offensive is a Europe-wide app for age verification, already tested by several countries, which, according to von der Leyen, is now technically ready and will be available to citizens shortly.
The Commission is thus reacting to concerns about risks such as online bullying, addiction factors due to algorithmic design, and cyber-grooming, which involves approaching children and adolescents online. The Commission President’s diagnosis is grim: one in six children is bullied online. Furthermore, social media promotes addiction through endless scrolling, which can impair brain development.
Since platforms have so far been unable to provide effective mechanisms to protect minors from harmful content, the EU is taking matters into its own hands. The new app is intended to enable users to prove their age to online services without revealing their entire digital identity.
Data Protection to the Highest Standard
Technically, the project is based on the digital Covid certificate. As with the pandemic companion, the Commission relies on a model that works on smartphones, tablets, and computers. After downloading, the app is set up once with an identification document. Special attention is paid to privacy. Von der Leyen emphasized: The application meets “the world’s highest data protection standards.” Age is verified without revealing further personal information. The app is “completely anonymous – users cannot be traced.”
The application is based on Zero-Knowledge Proof. This cryptographic principle makes it possible to prove the correctness of information – in this case, reaching a certain age – without revealing the underlying data itself. This is intended to preserve informational self-determination. Platforms only receive confirmation of being “old enough” without having to scan the ID. Austria’s age control already relies on this procedure.
Enforcement of the DSA and EU Shoulder-to-Shoulder
The initiative is closely linked to the enforcement of the Digital Services Act (DSA). Virkkunen made it clear that the Commission is already taking action against companies like TikTok, Facebook, or Instagram for addictive designs. Measures have also been initiated against pornographic platforms, as they often do not use functional age controls. The new application now removes the excuse for corporations that there is no simple technical solution.
Countries like France, Italy, and Ireland are considered pioneers and plan to integrate the app into their national digital wallets. To avoid patchwork, Virkkunen intends to establish an EU-wide coordination mechanism for the accreditation of national solutions this month. The source code of the app is openly accessible as part of the EUDI digital citizen identity to build trust and facilitate integration into company solutions, for example. In Germany, an expert panel will initially develop recommendations for child safety online.
i used to believe that too but there´s several things you need to question about these claims.
Like - stocking a store with fake food to impress tourists sounds like it´s straight from a cartoon.
or
why do these outlandish claims about “family executions for wrongthink” only originate from either defectors who need to make a living with sensationalist claims or stuff like radio free asia (US Intelligence funded) citing one of their ‘anonymous sources’
The DPRK certainly has issues, but first you need to establish which of these issues are baseless claims and which aren’t. You always need to ask: who made that claim?
I can highly recommend the book ‘Traitor’s guide to North Korea’ by the Norwegian Artist Morten Traavik, he is fairly ‘apolitical’ (if that`s even possible) and tells about his work as a cultural ambassador who worked close with North Korean People. His work peaked when he arranged a Laibach concert in Pyongyang. He demystifies the DPRK and shows that they´re still people with a slightly different outlook on the world stemming from how the world treated them.
