TZUTC: -0500
MSGID: 1302.consprcy@1:2320/105 2cef5d5e
PID: Synchronet 3.21a-Linux master/123f2d28a Jul 12 2025 GCC 12.2.0
TID: SBBSecho 3.28-Linux master/123f2d28a Jul 12 2025 GCC 12.2.0
BBSID: CAPCITY2
CHRS: ASCII 1
FORMAT: flowed
After the UK, online age verification is landing in the EU

Date:
Tue, 29 Jul 2025 16:00:35 +0000

Description:
Five EU countries are set to test an age verification app to protect 
children, despite privacy and security concerns.

FULL STORY

Five EU countries are set to test an age verification app to protect children
online. 

Denmark, Greece, Spain, France, and Italy are the first to test the technical
solution unveiled by the European Commission on July 14, 2025. 

The announcement came less than two weeks before the UK enforced mandatory 
age verification checks on July 25. These have so far sparked concerns about
the privacy and security of British users, fueling a spike in usage amongst
the best VPN apps.

The EU's age verification blueprint

As the European Commission explains on its website, the age verification
blueprint enables users to prove they are over 18 "without revealing any 
other personal information." 

"It is based on open-source technology and designed to be robust,
user-friendly, privacy-preserving, and fully interoperable with future
European Digital Identity Wallets," the Commission explains. 

The introduction of this technical solution is a key step in implementing
children's online safety rules under the Digital Services Act (DSA). 

Lawmakers ensure that this solution seeks to set "a new benchmark for privacy
protection" in age verification. 

That's because online services will only receive proof that the user is 18+,
without any personal details attached. 

Further work on the integration of zero-knowledge proofs is also ongoing, 
with the full implementation of mandatory checks in the EU expected to be
enforced in 2026.

What's happening in the UK? 

Starting from Friday, July 25, millions of Britons will need to be ready to
prove their age before accessing certain websites or content. 

Under the Online Safety Act , sites displaying adult-only content must 
prevent minors from accessing their services via robust age checks. 

Social media, dating apps, and gaming platforms are also expected to verify
their users' age before showing them so-called harmful content. 

As the UK's regulator body, Ofcom explains on its website, service providers
can use several methods to confirm users' age. These span from face scans to
estimate people's age to bank or credit card age checks, ID wallets , mobile
network operator age checks, photo-ID matching, and even email-based age
estimation. 

The vagueness of what constitutes harmful content, as well as the privacy and
security risks linked with some of these age verification methods, have
attracted criticism among experts, politicians, and privacy-conscious 
citizens who fear a negative impact on people's digital rights. 

While the EU approach seems better on paper, it remains to be seen how the 
age verification scheme will ultimately be enforced. 

Commenting on this point, the CEO of Swedish VPN provider, Mullvad , told
TechRadar: "The EU [approach] is more planned, it took the EU 12 years. In 
the UK looks like [there is] no plan at all."

======================================================================
Link to news story:
https://www.techradar.com/computing/cyber-security/after-the-uk-online-age-ver
ification-is-landing-in-the-eu

$$
--- SBBSecho 3.28-Linux
 * Origin: capitolcityonline.net * Telnet/SSH:2022/HTTP (1:2320/105)
SEEN-BY: 105/81 106/201 128/187 129/14 305 153/7715 154/110 218/700
SEEN-BY: 226/30 227/114 229/110 111 206 300 307 317 400 426 428 664
SEEN-BY: 229/700 705 266/512 291/111 320/219 322/757 342/200 396/45
SEEN-BY: 460/58 712/848 902/26 2320/0 105 304 3634/12 5075/35
PATH: 2320/105 229/426