BRUSSELS—Five member states of the European Union are preparing to deploy the bloc's white-label age verification identity app as a measure to prevent minors from seeing adult entertainment content and social media networks, the union's executive branch announced Monday.
According to the European Commission, the white-label app and blueprint will be adopted by Denmark, France, Greece, Italy and Spain as the pilot program members.
"Market players can also take up the software solution and further develop it," says the commission, referring to private companies operating in the EU's digital space.
"The EU age verification solution sets a new benchmark for privacy protection in age verification methods," explains the same press statement. "When users will activate the app, once it becomes available at the national level, their age will be verified by the issuer using detailed personal data, like the date of birth."
AVN reported last month on the white-label age verification application and technical infrastructure. Finland-based technology news outlet AfterDawn.com reported that the company developing the age verification app on behalf of the EU is called T-Scy, which won a commission tender for the age verification project.
"A more detailed feature roadmap is planned to be published at a later stage," reads the program's digital documentation. European Age Verification Solution documentation is available for webmasters to review here.
For reference, the government of France is currently in legal conflict with the European Commission over whether it can enforce its controversial SREN age verification law, which is enforced by the country's digital regulator, Arcom.
AVN also reported that the SREN law forced Aylo, the parent company of Pornhub.com, to pull out of France.
France is one of the largest markets for online pornography, according to Pornhub Insights. The legal conflict froze the SREN law, and Pornhub temporarily restored access.
