BRUSSELS—The European Commission is granting all online platforms, including adult entertainment platforms, up to 12 months to comply with the European Union's Digital Services Act (DSA) requirements that dictate "strict" age verification measures be deployed to protect minors from age-restricted materials.
Legal news service MLex.com reports that the requirement for "strict" age verification comes from the final guidelines published by the DSA to enforce its sweeping laws for all member states of the transnational bloc.
The 12 months begin from the release of the the guidlines earlier this month.
"Methods that rely on verified and trusted government-issued IDs, without providing the platform with additional personal data, may constitute an effective age verification method, insofar as they are based on anonymised age tokens," reads the official guidance document.
These guidelines were released in previous weeks to accompany announcements by the European Commission of a white label age verification application that is being tested and deployed by at least five member states, including France. France is the second-largest online pornography audience in the world, per AVN's reporting.
A presentation by the European Commission to EU member states on July 17 suggested using age-estimation tools instead of strict age checks, MLex adds.
According to the guidelines, websites like porn and gambling platforms, or any online service that could harm minors, should consider strong age-verification systems. This also applies to sites where users must be at least 18 or meet a minimum age set by national or EU law.
Age estimation is defined to include facial scans augmented by artificial intelligence and other measures. Age verification includes the use of government identification documents and/or other accessible sensitive personally identifiable information sources, like credit card numbers and consumer data.
