The Effectiveness of the Digital Services Act vs. Mandatory Age Verification

• The European Commission is preparing legislation for a mandatory "minimum age" for a wide range of digital services, potentially barring children under 13.
• Experts warn that age verification technology poses significant risks to privacy, data security, and fundamental rights, essentially serving as a mass surveillance infrastructure.
• Regulators are increasingly looking toward the Digital Services Act (DSA) to force platforms to disable addictive design features rather than relying on blanket age-based restrictions.

The Problem with Age Verification

• European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen plans to introduce a bill targeting "Social Media Plus," which could encompass messengers, online games, and AI systems.
• While expert committees suggest tiered approaches—such as supervised internet use for ages 3–13—any mandatory verification system creates a "control first" architecture that threatens the anonymity of all users.
• Experts strongly criticize technologies like the "Mini-Wallet" or biometric age estimation, noting that they fail to offer secure, decentralized verification without compromising personal data.

Platform Regulation as an Alternative

• Age restrictions are criticized by child protection advocates as ineffective, shifting the focus away from the platforms' own business models.
• The EU Commission has made progress in its investigation into Meta, preliminarily finding that addictive features like endless feeds, autoplay, and highly personalized recommendations violate the DSA.
• The Commission is demanding that these features be disabled, arguing that platforms failed to mitigate the negative impacts of their design on young users.
• The recent compliance of X (formerly Twitter) with EU demands demonstrates that the DSA is a powerful tool to hold large tech companies accountable without imposing massive restrictions on user rights.