1. EU Digital Identity Wallet – Harmonised Age Verification
The European Commission is currently working towards an EU-harmonised approach to age verification, collaborating with Member States to develop a unified age verification solution. This solution is built on the European Digital Identity Wallet framework and supports compliance with Article 28 of the Digital Services Act.
In July 2025, the Commission released the first version of an EU white-label age verification blueprint, to be used as a basis for a user-friendly and privacy-preserving age verification method across Member States. The release of this blueprint launches a trial phase to test and improve the age verification solution, to be done in collaboration with Member States, online platforms and users. Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, and Spain will be the first to test the solutions, either by adding it to their national digital wallets or by launching their own age verification apps. Market players can also voluntarily use and build on this software solution.
The Commission plans to scale the pilot and related support to other Member States, in coordination with national authorities and Digital Services Coordinators. At a later stage, all Member States will receive tailored strategies to integrate the solution into their digital wallets or to publish localised apps for end users.
2. European Data Protection Board (EDPB) Guidelines
• The EDPB’s guidance on children’s data protection issues are expected to be published by end of 2025, per the EDPB Work Programme 2024 – 2025.
• Per its Strategy 2024 – 2027, the EDPB also intends to provide guidance on the interplay between the application of the GDPR and other legal acts, particularly the EU Artificial Intelligence Act and the Digital Services Act.
3. Proposal for a Regulation (EU) laying down rules to prevent and combat child sexual abuse
The European Commission has published this proposal for legislation which, if passed by the EU, would require hosting services and certain other service providers to search, detect, report and remove/ disable access to child sexual abuse material and to assess and minimise the risk that their services are used for online child sexual abuse. This draft legislation is currently progressing through the EU law making process.
4. Proposal for a Digital Fairness Act
The European Commission is working on a Digital Fairness Act proposal, also aimed at addressing children’s use of digital services. In this regard, the EU Commissioner for Democracy, Justice, the Rule of Law and Consumer Protection (the EU Commissioner) has specifically indicated that this would ensure that consumers are not exploited for commercial purposes, that social media influencers are not misleading consumers and that children are sufficiently protected online. The Digital Fairness Act is expected to address dark patterns, marketing by social media influencers, addictive design of digital products and unfair personalisation practices. A public consultation is expected to take place with a legislative proposal for a Digital Fairness Act then expected in mid-2026.
In broader terms, the EU Commissioner has stated that the protection of children from manipulative practices when playing online games will remain a priority in EU consumer policy going forward.
5. Digital Minority Age Discussions
Several Member States – including France, Spain and Greece – have formally called on the European Commission to introduce an EU-wide rule setting a minimum digital age of access to social media platforms, sometimes referred to as a “digital age of majority.”
In a joint statement issued in May 2025, these countries requested legislative measures to better protect minors online by raising the minimum age for social media use (e.g. to 15 years) and reinforcing age verification obligations for platforms. The proposal is motivated by increasing concern about children's mental health, exposure to harmful content, and manipulative online design practices.
This initiative reflects growing political momentum across EU Member States to harmonise digital access thresholds and ongoing work at the Commission level on the Digital Fairness Act and age assurance under the DSA. Although there is no binding legislative proposal yet, the issue is expected to be discussed further in 2025–2026 as part of broader digital child protection reforms.
6. Influencer Marketing
The EU is also considering harmonised rules on influencer marketing: the upcoming Digital Fairness Act (expected 2026) will likely regulate #ad disclosures, dark patterns, and influencer-specific practices. The European Council has called for such EU-wide influencer legislation, following national-level moves in countries like France, Italy and Belgium. If introduced it is likely that this would also affect advertising towards minors.
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