euCONSENT Age Verification System for Internet Users

2021: Creation of a unified age verification system for Internet users in the EU

At the end of April 2021, it became known about the creation in the European Union of a cross-border system of online age verification focused on protecting the rights of the child. The project called euCONSENT is being carried out by a consortium of the same name, consisting of 12 leading academic institutes and developers of technological products.

These developers received funding from the European Commission to develop, implement and evaluate a pilot project for a new pan-European system. This solution will allow telecom operators to check the age of users to protect them from harmful content, as well as ensure the consent of parents to provide personal data to young children.

The EU is developing a unified age verification system for Internet users

The aim of this project, initiated by the European Parliament, is to create a technical infrastructure for the implementation of child protection mechanisms (such as age verification) and parental consent mechanisms, as required by EU law, for example, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The euCONSENT solution will be developed with the help of children and young people and under the guidance of leading academic experts in the field of child rights and Internet security.

EU Kids Online, Eurochild and Coface - Families Europe, among others, will regularly contribute to the work of the project team, which will be advised by an expert group chaired by John Carr, one of the world's leading authorities on the use of the Internet and digital technologies by children and adolescents. The new system will then be used in the pilot phase by more than 1,500 children, adolescents and parents from at least three EU member states. Independent experts will appreciate the impressions of users and decide the future fate of the project.^[1]

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