Across the European Union, age verification has become a central policy tool in the protection of minors online. The European Commission is pursuing a harmonised approach designed to ensure that users can prove they meet minimum age requirements for age-restricted services while preserving privacy and minimising data sharing. This work is closely linked to the Digital Services Act, which places obligations on online platforms to prevent children’s exposure to harmful content.
In 2025, the Commission published an EU age-verification blueprint describing a common technical framework for privacy-preserving age checks. The solution allows a user to confirm they are over a required age threshold without revealing identity details to the website or platform requesting verification. A prototype application based on this blueprint is now being tested in several Member States, including Denmark, France, Greece, Italy and Spain. The system is open-source and designed so national authorities can adapt it to local identity infrastructures. It is also being developed to integrate in the future with the European Digital Identity Wallet, scheduled for wider rollout in the coming years.
Alongside the technical framework, the Commission has issued guidance under the Digital Services Act clarifying how platforms should implement age assurance and child protection measures. These guidelines encourage proportionate and privacy-respecting age checks for services that present higher risks to minors. The direction of travel at EU level is toward interoperable, standardised age verification methods that can function across borders without creating fragmented national solutions.
Member States are advancing their own implementation timelines. Several countries have introduced or proposed national requirements for age verification on adult content sites and other restricted services, supported by enforcement powers for regulators. Others are preparing to adopt the EU blueprint directly as their national solution. The number of European countries with formal age assurance policies has grown rapidly since 2024, reflecting political consensus that voluntary platform measures alone are insufficient.
Major online platforms are also strengthening their age-detection and verification systems in response to regulatory pressure. At the same time, debates continue in the European Parliament and among national governments regarding minimum age thresholds for social media access and the balance between child protection, privacy and freedom of expression.
Overall, the EU is moving toward a unified ecosystem in which age verification becomes a standard element of online access control, built on privacy-preserving technology, embedded in Digital Services Act enforcement, and increasingly supported by national law.