The EU approach to age verification

To help online platforms implement a user-friendly and privacy-preserving age verification method, the Commission has developed a harmonised approach to age verification in the EU, in close collaboration with Member States.

This initiative aims to allow EU users to prove they are old enough to access legally age restricted sites, starting with being over 18 years of age for accessing adult-restricted online content, such as pornography, gambling, purchasing alcohol, and others.

It is a key step in supporting the implementation of the Digital Services Act and is just one piece of the puzzle to protect children online. 

Age verification solution

The Commission made available a blueprint for an age verification solution on 14 July 2025. It became feature ready age verification solution on 15 April 2026 and can now be customised by Member States and market players.

The age verification solution allows users to prove they are over 18 without sharing any other personal information. Apart from being privacy-preserving, it is user-friendly and fully interoperable with future EU Digital Identity Wallets.

It can also be easily adapted to prove other age ranges, for example 13+ or 65+ for retirees.

The age verification solution  sets a standard in terms of privacy and user-friendliness.

Also called the ‘mini wallet’, the solution is built on the same technical specifications as the European Digital Identity Wallets that are to be rolled out by the end of 2026 in all EU Member States. This ensures compatibility and enables the integration of the age verification functionality in the future Wallets.

The solution can be customised, for example, through translation into national language(s), without the possibility, however, to change the privacy-preserving features. Preparation for publication by them includes following the requirements imposed by app store providers with regards to quality control and security, among others.

The design and development of this solution has been supported by a contract awarded to Scytáles and T-Systems. Find the technical specifications, source code and a beta release.

Age verification recommendation

Before developing a solution, the Commission published a blueprint for an age verification solution on 14 July 2025.

The Commission has adopted a recommendation to pave the way for everyone in the EU to be able to access age verification tools.

These tools should be based on anonymous proof-of-age technologies that ensure the highest possible standard of privacy and data protection.

The recommendation lays down actions for Member States to roll out age verification by the end of 2026, including:

• Making use of the EU’s age verification blueprint
• Drawing up implementation plans
• Working together with each other, Digital Services Coordinators, the European Commission, researchers and civil society
• Ensuring compliance with relevant cybersecurity and privacy standards through third-party scrutiny

Additionally, the Commission will create an EU Age Verification Scheme which outlines the governance, trust model and requirements to be fulfilled by entities wishing to partake as issuers of Age Verification solutions or Proof of Age attestations. As part of the scheme, the Commission will set up a list of trusted proof-of-age providers and a list of trusted age verification solutions. Entities on these lists will have been validated to meet the requirements of the EU Age Verification Scheme, which will ensure they have a high level of reliability, security and accountability.