Papers please, maybe

Yesterday’s State of the European Union speech by Ursula von der Leyen featured a series of tech-related talking points: AI, of course (I’m not getting into that again), and what’s known as the “EU Kids Act,” a proposal intended to add graduated limitations to social media and other services for minors.

This prompted a few emails from readers asking what I thought about the idea and wondering if it was the opening move for a project to track our every move online. ID verification for minors being, in effect, ID verification for all.

I definitely have fears about this. But I’ve also looked at the European Age Verification Solution, and it’s built so that it can’t track you. It’s a rotating mathematical proof calculated locally on your device that basically answers the question “Are you older than 15?” with Yes or No. No other information about you is sent - by design (other verification solutions like Persona, used by sites like LinkedIn, are not like this, and you should not hand your data to those people).

Personally, I’d prefer they enforced existing laws like the Digital Services Act first, which would go a long way in reducing many of the harms they’re fighting, not only for children. But making laws is always easier than giving them teeth.

Age verification also favours big players like Meta or Google, who have the resources to implement this. Smaller players risk shutting down rather than bearing the cost of implementation. We could be handing the incumbents a moat.

It’s also early. The proposal hasn’t even been formally published yet. When it is, the people who read this stuff for a living will go through it with a fine-toothed comb, and we'll know more.

I get what they’re trying to do. With the limited knowledge I have, I’m not sure it’s the best choice, but any choice will be a compromise. The question is who’s going to pay for it?

Colin