Spain and 10 EU countries call for mandatory age verification for minors to access social media sites

Speech by the Minister for Digital Transformation and Public Function, Óscar López, at the DigitalES Summit

The Minister for Digital Transformation and Public Function, Óscar López, has announced that "Spain will propose to the European Commission that, in order to access social networks, age verification with effective tools to protect minors should be mandatory", during his participation in the DigitalES Summit in Madrid.

The Government of Spain, together with those of Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Walloon region (Belgium), has formally requested the European Commission to make this request in a letter signed by the Minister Óscar López himself and the Minister for Education, Vocational Training and Sports, Pilar Alegría, together with representatives of the other ten European governments.

In the text, they urge the Commission to "abandon the current status quo on online age assurance methods and to consider mandatory (effective) age verification for access to social media platforms as an indispensable and appropriate measure, given the risks involved". The signatories thus call for a shift from current methods, which simply ask the user for his or her age, to truly effective age verification tools, such as a digital identity provided by official bodies.

Mental health and child well-being

The letter, sent to the Executive Vice-president of the European Commission for Technological Sovereignty, Security and Democracy , Henna Maria Virkkunen, and to the Vice-President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Skills, Education, Quality Employment and Social Rights, Roxana Mînzatu, argues that this initiative is necessary to ensure the mental health and well-being of minors when using the Internet.

The Spanish minister recalled some of the data collected in official reports that warn of the risks to the mental health, quality of sleep and academic performance of minors, such as the fact that one in three young people spend more than three hours a day on social networks. "The Government of Spain is concerned about and addresses the risks of digital transformation with the same intensity with which we promote its benefits," remarked López.

This new measure follows on from the proposal that Spain, France and Greece presented to the EU Council of Telecommunications Ministers in Luxembourg, which aims to protect minors from the risks of the Internet, such as access to pornography. The project advocates measures to make the digital environment safer for children.

In particular, it calls for mandatory age verification and parental control tools on all Internet-enabled devices available on the European market.

A common regulatory framework

It also proposes introducing a European digital age of majority, leaving it open for each Member State to set the age, and recommends requiring age-appropriate web design, minimising addictive and persuasive architectures such as pop-ups, profile personalisation and video autoplay.

During the meeting of European ministers, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Slovakia and Croatia gave their support to the proposal, and Cyprus, Slovenia and Denmark, which will soon take over the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU and will make the protection of minors on the internet one of its priorities, joined as signatories.

In the letter sent to the Commission, the signatories recall this document, which emphasises "the lack of widespread and properly enforced age verification mechanisms, as well as the need for a regulatory framework establishing mandatory age verification obligations for social media platforms".

Pilot launched by the European Commission

In this text submitted by Spain, France and Greece, the development of Digital Wallet Beta as a robust, secure and privacy-friendly age verification solution, fully aligned with the European digital identity charter, is reported.

It should be recalled that Spain is participating with this application in the pilot launched by the European Commission to provide an age verification tool that will serve as a common basis so that each country can adapt it to its national situation. In this way, the aim is to encourage all tools to be interoperable with each other in order to be more effective vis-à-vis the large platforms.

"Spain is the southwest bastion of European digital sovereignty, thanks to the Next Generation funds and public-private partnership projects, and also thanks to the management of a government with a defined, prosperous and pro-European project", concluded Minister Óscar López during his participation in the DigitalES conference.

Non official translation