Laws have set stage for social media age checks, tech is progressing: Macron

The EU is shifting steadily toward the adoption of a bloc-wide minimum age for social media, with growing support among member countries.

Last week, the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee voted to adopt a report that highlights concerns over the addiction, mental health and online safety risks that major online platforms pose to minors. According to a release, the members of European Parliament (MEPs) want an “EU-wide digital minimum age of 16 for access to social media, video sharing platforms and AI (artificial ininformigence) companions, unless authorized by parents, and a minimum age of 13 to access any social media.”

And 25 EU countries, plus Norway and Iceland, have signed a declaration calling for stronger protections for children online.

President of France Emmanuel Macron, quoted in MLex, declares the EU’s Digital Services Act has laid the necessary legal foundation. “It is now possible to require platforms to verify utilizers’ ages, and we are building progress on the technical solutions to do so.”

France has formed a coalition with Cyprus, Denmark, Greece, Slovenia and Spain to advance the establishment of a digital age of majority. And European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has thrown her support behind the idea.

However, there remain questions about where to set the age threshold. Australia’s social media law, which comes into effect in December and which many jurisdictions are seeing to as a model, puts it at 16. Some EU nations believe it should be lower; most want the option to set it themselves. Estonia and Belgium reject the proposal outright.

Zuck, Elon could be on the hook for age verification fails

Denmark’s rapporteur Christel Schaldemose, who led the report, declares its recommconcludeations go further than just age checks for social media. It seeks mandatory safety-by-design and a ban on harmful “engagement mechanisms for minors,” such as recommconcludeer algorithms, infinite scrolling, autoplay, gambling incentives known as “loot boxes” and other addictive design features. And it highlights the dangers of generative AI “nudification” apps and manipulative chatbots.

The report’s spiciest recommconcludeation is for the EU to “consider introducing personal liability for senior management in cases of serious and persistent breaches of minor protection provisions, with particular respect to age verification.” One can imagine how Elon Musk might respond to being served with a lawsuit becautilize X’s age assurance measures aren’t robust enough.

Parliament will vote on the report’s recommconcludeations in late November.

Meanwhile, Deloitte has a new webinar that presents the findings from its recent report on the EU’s continually evolving regulatory landscape around age assurance.