[co-author: Virginie Liebermann]*
On April 15, 2026, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen issued a statement (the Statement) announcing that the European Commission has developed a digital age verification app for use across the EU. The European Commission developed this app in response to concerns relating to the exposure of minors to harmful and illegal content, addictive platform design practices and online bullying and grooming.
The Statement notes that the app follows four core principles:
- simple user verification: users install the app and verify their age using an official identity document such as a passport or national ID card. This means that, when accessing an online service, users can prove they meet age requirements, without revealing additional data;
- privacy focused design: the app provides for age verification process only, is anonymous and does not enable users to be tracked;
- device compatibility: the app can be accessed on any device; and
- open source code: the software code for the app is open source. This enables public scrutiny of the code and means that partner countries and online platforms can rely on the app.
The Statement explicitly links the app to the stricter enforcement of the EU’s rules on children’s rights, particularly those that apply to online platform providers.
The European Commission’s press release is available here and the Statement by President von der Leyen and Executive Vice-President Virkkunen is available here.
In addition, on April 29, 2026, the European Commission set out a common EU wide approach to age verification technologies, reinforcing its broader policy and enforcement agenda on the protection of minors online, including enforcement under the Digital Services Act (DSA). Through a Recommendation, the Commission encourages Member States to ensure that EU users have access, where relevant, to robust, privacy preserving age verification tools by December 31, 2026, based on anonymous proof of age technologies that confirm whether a user meets a defined age threshold without disclosing identity or exact age.
The approach relies on an EU age verification blueprint interoperable with the European Digital Identity Wallets, national implementation plans, cross border cooperation and independent third party scrutiny, and is expected to be underpinned by an EU Age Verification Scheme establishing common requirements, a trusted list of compliant providers and mechanisms intended to provide legal and technical certainty for online services.
While explicitly framed as complementary to ongoing DSA enforcement actions concerning risks to minors and aligned with the Commission’s DSA guidelines on the protection of minors, the initiative is positioned as a horizontal technical and governance framework capable of being relied upon across EU digital regulation.
Taken together, these developments signal heightened expectations for digital services to move beyond formal age limits and deploy effective, privacy compliant age verification and risk mitigation measures.
*CE Knowledge Counsel
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