European authorities press on with digital wallets for social media age verification

Digital wallets for age verification are being developed to protect minors on large social media platforms under the Digital Services Act (DSA), before they are deployed under another regulation, a European Commission official said on Wednesday (2 October).

The digital wallets were envisioned under the latest Electronic Identification and Trust Services for Electronic Transactions (eIDAS) regulation, signed in April to amend a previous text.

They are designed as a tool for EU citizens to "control their digital identity" while "moving seamlessly across borders," according to a Commission website. Possible use cases range from public services to banking.

According to the eIDAS, the wallets are planned to be operational by the end of 2026, but the Commission, working with coordinating authorities for digital services in member states, wants to have a "bridge" until then, the senior official said.

The wallets will not be mandatory for platforms or users, but they could become "de facto a little bit like a gold standard" for age verification, the official said.

Top priority

Age verification on social media platforms has become a top priority for MEPs as the efficacy of the DSA, which has been in force since February, is being considered.

"Age verification barely exists" because it is merely self-declaration and "the implementation of the DSA is lagging in several aspects," MEP Andreas Schwab (EPP, Germany) told Euractiv. The digital wallets are a "promising and effective instrument," he said.

The official said the Commission opened a tender for a pilot for digital wallets for age verification after amending its budget to allocate €4 million to the project in early September.

They added that the Commission is considering both app- and device-based solutions, and work is being done across the departments of digital wallets and better internet for kids.

The digital wallets were not mentioned in the DSA text, but the digital wallets regulation does mention their use age verification.

The Council of the EU called on using digital wallets for age verification as far back as April. Spain is planning the launch of a digital wallet for age verification, while France's Arcom authority is mulling the use of credit cards for age verification on porn sites.

Separately, Commission Vice President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency Věra Jourová told Euractiv that the Commission will publish an "Age Assurance Toolkit" to "raise awareness of the existing effective and privacy-preserving methods of age verification." Age assurance is a more broad definition for determining a user's age, including self-assessment.

Age assurance is an "approximate" way of determining a users' age, whereas verification is "precise," another senior Commisison official said.

[Edited by Alice Taylor-Braçe]