Brussels – Five European countries, including France, will test an application to check the age of online users and prevent children from accessing dangerous content, the European Commission announced on Monday.
“This device will allow users to easily prove that they are over 18 years old, which will protect children from inappropriate content,” said Henna Virkkunen, European commissioner in charge of technological issues.
Very concretely, it is a European prototype that each Member State can adjust according to its own rules: for example depending on a prohibition on the Internet for children aged 12, 13 or 15, etc.
The first five countries to take the plunge are France, Denmark, Greece, Italy and Spain.
This proposal was particularly pushed by France, the minister in charge of digital, Clara Chappaz, defending a verification of the age “at European level” to access social networks.
“Thanks to these guidelines, the ban on social networks before 15 years old becomes possible. This is a decisive and expected step to protect our children, ”said Chappaz in a press release.
“This is a victory for the protection of our children (…) France will be there!” Added Emmanuel Macron on the X network.
In early June, the French president had committed to going in the direction of such a ban, if, “in a few months”, this was not done at European level.
«Plus d’excuse»
The European Union has one of the most strict legislative arsenal in the world to supervise digital giants.
But calls to go further multiply among the twenty-seven, while studies demonstrate the negative effects of social networks on the mental and physical health of young people.
On Monday, the European Commission also published recommendations for social networks for young people, to allow for example minors to block users more easily.
These measures also include the deletion of potentially addictive features such as the “checks”, which indicate that a message has been read and can push a response frantically.
“It is essential to ensure that our children and young people are safe online,” said Commissioner Henna Virkkunen. “Platforms have no excuse for pursuing practices that endanger children,” she said.
For its part, the Arcom, the gendarme of French digital, praised measures which resume “on many points” its recommendations and rented “the unequivocal assertion of the obligation made to platforms intended for adults (including pornographic sites) to effectively verify the age of their users” everywhere in the EU.
Brussels is currently conducting surveys on Facebook and Instagram social networks, properties of the American group Meta, as well as on Tiktok, as part of its new Digital Services Regulations (DSA). These platforms are accused of not sufficiently protecting children from harmful content.
At the end of May, the Commission also opened an investigation into four pornographic sites (pornhub, stripchat, xnxx, and xvideos) suspected of not preventing children’s access to adult content.
Raziye Akkoc
© Agence France-Presse
