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EU Says Privacy‑First Age‑Verification App Is Ready for Member States

The tool gives sites a single, privacy‑preserving way to confirm ages without seeing users’ data.

Overview

  • The European Commission said the EU‑wide age‑check app is technically ready and will be offered to countries to adapt and deploy.
  • The system reuses the COVID digital‑certificate design and returns only a yes or no on whether a user meets a required age threshold.
  • Spain, France, Italy, Greece and Denmark plan to integrate the tool into national digital wallets after trials over the past year.
  • The code will be open source and built to work with the EU Digital Identity Wallet later in 2026, with Scytáles and T‑Systems leading development.
  • Under the Digital Services Act, platforms can use other methods if they prove effective, and digital‑rights groups such as the EFF warn age checks could become surveillance.