France, Greece, Denmark, Italy, and Spain will pilot an EU-wide effort to protect underage internet users through an age verification app, which will soon be released. The new app will help protect minors from adult content, such as pornography, which is now easily accessible on the internet. The objective of this EU pilot test is to make sure that the technology being developed around age verification, a delicate issue in terms of privacy, is secure and complies with the technical standards required by Brussels.

The age verification projects that pass the selection filter will be able to offer their technical details to the Member States that request them so that they may build their own tool adapted to their particular circumstances. “We have seen truly horrifying data on pornography consumption among boys and girls aged 12 and 13. Something must be done. The most important thing is to implement age verification systems on a European scale. No pornographic platform is going to tell Europe what it must do,” underscores Óscar López, the Minister for Digital Transformation and Public Function of Spain.

In Spain, for instance, one in four minors aged 12 consumes porn, according to stats from the Spanish government.

Fighting porn’s wild west

This month, the Commission announced a coordinated effort against pornographic websites due to the risk they pose to minors. On the one hand, it has launched an investigation into four major adult content platforms, including Pornhub, focusing on the potential risk they represent for the protection of minors. On the other hand, the Member States will focus on taking measures against smaller websites. Spain is leading, together with France and Greece, a proposal to set a minimum age for access to social networks and to oblige all manufacturers of internet-connected devices to integrate age verification and parental control tools.

European digital wallet project

The European regulation (eIDAS2 regulation) establishes that, from November 2026, all Member States must provide citizens with the necessary means to identify themselves to the public administration and companies in a digital and secure manner, particularly when reinforced authentication is required, as banks, for example, demand.

The European digital wallet will make it possible neither to carry printed documents nor to have to surrender data or register with a username and password each time an official procedure is to be carried out. Spain is one of the first countries to have begun work on this tool, one of whose uses will also be to anonymously certify that the user is of legal age. In addition, it already incorporates other services, such as the accreditation of university degrees, with more to be added over time.

The Cartera Digital Beta app stores a credential of legal age issued by the Government of Spain. Internet platforms will be able to consult it to allow access to adult content. In this process, no personal information is exchanged beyond the mere confirmation of the user’s adulthood.