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Title: To Enforce Its Proposed Social Media Ban for 450 Million Pre-Teens, EU
Builds an Open Source App

Link: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/09/20/07122...

The European Commission "proposed on Thursday banning children under 13 from
social media, with parent-supervised accounts until 15," reports Reuters.
"Enforcement would rely on a tool Brussels built itself" - a free, open-
source age verification smartphone app "that tells a platform whether a user
meets an age threshold without revealing their identity..." If passed, the
proposed Kids Act would create the world's largest social media access
restriction, covering 450 million people across 27 countries... [The EU-built
age-verification app] is being rolled out through member states, with seven
pilot countries: Cyprus, Denmark, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy and Spain.
The Commission expects EU-wide availability by the end of 2026. It will also
be used to prove users are over 18 when accessing adult sites, a restriction
already implemented under the Digital Services Act... [T]he system itself is
decentralised. Member states run it through issuers they designate, and the
proofs live on the user's phone. There is no central EU database of ages or
of who verified whom... A user proves their age once to a nationally
designated issuer - a body vetted by the member state, which can be a digital
ID provider, a bank or a post office. At a restricted site, the app certifies
that the user is above the required age threshold. The platform receives only
a yes-or-no response. Issuance and verification are handled by separate
entities. The proof provider is not told which service the proof was used
for. Each proof works only once, preventing cross-service tracking. No
identity documents or biometric data are retained. The code is open-source,
allowing independent scrutiny. The significance of the EU approach is that it
provides a common age-verification mechanism rather than leaving individual
platforms to develop and enforce their own systems. "Online platforms can
easily rely on our age verification app. So there are no more excuses," [EU
Commission President Ursula] von der Leyen said... The proposal must be
approved by EU member states and the European Parliament before becoming law.
Non-compliance would risk fines of up to 6% of a tech company's global annual
sales, plus supervisory fees, Reuters reported earlier. The EU's plan follows
similar initiatives in Australia, Britain, China, India, Turkey and several
European Union countries.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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