Good morning.

Thank you for joining us in person and online for this press point.

For which the subject is the EU's age verification app and a number of related topics.

I'm very pleased to be joined on stage by Executive Vice President Virkkunen,

who will say a few introductory remarks before we open the floor for your questions. EVP, the floor is yours.

Good morning, everybody, and welcome to this press point.

I will focus on the topic that is very high on the Commission's agenda, protection of minors online.

We are already frontrunners in creating a safer online world for minors, for example, with the Digital Services Act and with its guidelines and enforcement actions,

also with our action plan against cyberbullying and the better Internet for Kids strategy, but more needs to be done.

Today we adopted the next important piece of the puzzle.

The Commission adopted the recommendation establishing a common framework for EU wide age verification technologies.

After finalizing the technical work on the European age verification solution,

it is now ready for Member States to customize and roll out.

It can be published as a stand alone app or integrated in European digital identity wallets,

which the Member States are supposed to provide by the end of this year.

Why this solution is important because it will help to ensure that everybody has the same online access,

dependent on national rules.

It will allow everybody to keep browsing the internet in full privacy,

while ensuring that children do not have access to content that is not meant for them.

The recommendation sets out clear expectations now for our Member States.

First,

we ask Member States to create national age verification solutions which are in line with this blueprint to ensure cross border interoperability.

Also,

Member States must now establish a system of proof of age attestations so as to determine users' age in the first place.

To accelerate the adoption of age verification tools so that people across Europe can count on safe,

secure, privacy preserving solutions.

And at the same time, we will also set up an age verification scheme,

and the scheme sets criteria for those who can provide proof of age and those who can develop age verification solutions.

Based on these criteria, we will assess potential providers and publish lists of providers that meet our high privacy and security standards,

including both public and private services, and platforms can then choose providers from this list.

At the informal Telecoms Council in Cyprus today and tomorrow, I will be meeting the Member States to discuss our recommendations.

The age verification solution goes hand in hand with our Digital Services Act enforcement.

Today, the Commission has preliminarily found Instagram and Facebook in breach of the DSA for failing to prevent minors under the age of 13 from accessing their services.

As we know,

Meta's own terms and rules indicate that Instagram and Facebook are not meant for minors who are under 13 years old.

Yet our preliminary findings show that META is doing very little to prevent children below this age from accessing these platforms.

We know that in the EU, some 12% of children who are under 13 years old are using Instagram and Facebook,

and yet META fail to identify assets and mitigate the risks for minors.

Poor mitigating measures expose under 13 years old users to online dangers,

such as cyber bullying, grooming or age inappropriate experiences.

Our preliminary findings indicate that when creating an account, minors under 13 years old can bypass age restrictions very easily by simply entering a false birth date,

with no effective controls in place by META to check if this self declaration is correct.

We also concluded that the tool for reporting minors under 13 is not easy to use, and often there is no proper follow up.

The reported minor can just continue to use the services.

So we are expecting META to change their practices to make sure that we can protect minors, as is underlined in our Digital Services Act, that when minors are using online services,

a very high level of privacy, safety and security has to be ensured and according to Meta's own terms and conditions,

minors under 13 years old, they shouldn't have access to their services.

Now I'm very much looking forward to hearing your questions. Thank you EVP.

We now open the floor for questions starting here in the room. Go ahead.

Good morning, Alexander for Dutch newspaper The Graf.

I have a question about why the European Commission is choosing for a recommendation, because in the end, also via the DSA,

there might be no chance that you can't use this application in the future because those companies need to provide this security for children.

So why is the Commission not coming up with a regulation,

a law so that you have a proper democratic debate also about this application.

And a second, if I may, there was some criticism on the safety of the blueprint.

Yeah, I would just want to know, is it, is it really safe now? Thank you.

Yes, thank you very much, and of course these are very key points of our recommendation because we see that in many Member States now there are activities going on to set minimum age to prevent minors under 14 or 15 or 16 years old to enter into certain services,

and we have to have that kind of tools also that it's possible to verify your age.

It's about keeping your personal data for the online platforms, like your passport or other identity,

and that's why we have been working with the technical solution that you can prove your age without giving your personal data for those services.

Many Member States have been testing our different solutions and also our solution, and of course we want to make sure,

because it's very important for us to create one single digital market that.

We have solutions which are interoperable but we don't have 27 different systems and that's why we now published our blueprint that the member states can customize that and we have interoperable solutions in the member states.

So we think that there will be public solutions but also private solutions which are based on this blueprint and for the same technical approach we have proposed here.

And of course it's very important that this is protecting the privacy of the citizens, but of course the security aspect is very important as well,

and that's why this is published as a as a open source and everybody can hit and hack and test now this model.

We have, of course, this is not the final model yet, it's still under progress,

but when it will be now adopted in the Member States, of course it will be fully secure.

So this demo model is meant for that, that everybody can really test and hack and hit it now. Thank you, EVP. Please go ahead.

Thank you Verina Sofi Meyer from the Austrian broadcaster ORF.

I have a question on the timing because you're recommending now to member states to roll out this age verification app,

but you don't know yet the findings of the special panel that's advising the mission at the moment on age restrictions for the access to social media apps,

or do you have some new findings that is leading that direction? Thank you.

Anyway, we see that a common European solution is needed to ensure interoperability, and we base this very much for the experience we had, on the COVID certificates,

because there we were also creating a European cross border solution that you could show that you are vaccinated without giving you any other information.

Together with that, so we were using very much the same technical experience and during that time our model came also as a global standard and it's also ideal with this because this is open source technology that everybody could also globally use the same standard and we could have fully interoperability when it comes to minimum age and the work that we are doing in the Commission side,

so we still have the expert panel working on.

They are supposed to publish their conclusions before summer, but already many Member States,

they are planning to set that kind of minimum age, and that's why it's important that we are coming.

With the solution, also with the age verification, and really, today, telecoms ministers will gather in Cyprus and we have the possibility tomorrow also to discuss about the topic where the Member States are now with the piloting processes,

because 6 or 7 Member States, they have been testing and piloting age verification solutions and also about the next steps. Thank you EVP.

We'll take a couple of questions online, starting with Fabio. Yes, hi. Thank you for the floor.

This is Fabio Napoli for the Italian news agency Public Policy.

My question is,

how are you going to prevent kids to use a simple VPN bypassing the age verification,

app? Thank you. What was the question?

How are you going to prevent children Yes, of course, it's It's difficult, of course, to have the technological solutions that there's no any way to circumvent or try to circumvent,

of course, the rules, but now when we are when we are setting the rules in place, of course, we have to also.

We have to also have ways of how we are able to implement this, and now we don't have that kind of age verification tool at all,

which is protecting people's privacy and at the same time, which is cyber secure and unsecure at all the levels.

This is our solution for that, but of course it's also an important part of next steps also to look at that it shouldn't be circumvented,

and of course, we are looking at that kind of high risk services now.

Just a few weeks ago, we published preliminary findings on.

Against 4 porn platforms, and these, for example, are seen as high risk services that they have to have very strong age verification tool in the place that they they can be sure that users under 18 years,

they are not having access to these porn platforms, for example,

so that's why that kind of privacy preserving solutions are very much needed. Thank you EVP. Next we turn to Razer. Go ahead. Razier, are you there? Can you connect? Me? No, no, we have you, Raz. Go ahead. OK, so you can hear me, yeah?

Yes, OK, thank you so much, Razie Akoj, AP news agency. I just had a question.

It sounds like this is like a procedural non-binding recommendation, but we've heard,

some whispers about some member states a bit resistant, and so it feels for me.

That the message kind of hidden in this recommendation is member states have to take a disc. What?

Member States have to, roll out this app.

I just wanted to understand, with the EU Commission take any decision, any kind of punishment if some EU states resist?

Now Mr President, in the Member States, there is a very strong connection now to our digital identity wallets, because this is by our legislation that our Member States should provide by the end of this year,

digital wallets for their citizens, and this is now an opportunity also to include this age verification app as a.

As part of the digital wallet solution, what the Member States are supposed to provide for their citizens by the end of this year, so there is already binding legislation,

but it's also, of course, a possibility to provide these as self standing apps by the public sector,

but also from the private companies' side. Thank you EVP.

Coming back to the room, I have a question here. Hi, Adrian van from AFP.

I'd like to know your position on the, the French proposal for,

for a law banning, people under 15 from accessing social media.

Do you think the versions that's, currently discussed at the French Parliament is,

could be, could be compatible with, with the DSA?

The European Union side, of course,

it's important that now all the all the proposals that the Member States are having and all the legislation they are adopting that it is in line with our DSA.

Where we have our European approach, but it's also the competence of Member States that they can set different age limits for their own citizens, so going in that direction,

this is under the competence of the Member States,

and we know that many Member States are discussing about these possibilities that they would like to have a more strict approach to protect.

Minors, and that's why we see also from the European side that it would be better to have a European approach.

So that's the reason why we are at the same time now working at the Commission level also to look at what could be the European solution for that.

But really Member States can set that kind of age limits and restrictions for their citizens to some services. We have a question here.

Yes, Viktor Elbling from Swedish news agency TT, just a simple question on, on META.

I mean, there's Instagram and Facebook that says for themselves that is, this is not, good for under thirteens,

but if they would decide that, well, no, sorry, it, it is OK for under thirteens, would everything be sold up?

According to our Digital Services Act, when minors are using online platforms,

a very high level of safety, security and privacy has to be in place.

And also with our GDPR rules, 13 years old, it's a minimum that also our citizens,

they can give their, authorization that their data can be handled.

So it's also coming from our GDPR where 13 years old, it's like the limit also for, for your data processing. Coming back online, I have Anupriya. Yeah, hi, good morning. Thanks, thanks for the questions. I just had two questions.

The first one, being on META, publicly advocating for parental consent,

to obtain, from children, to be able to access social media.

I wanted to know what the Commission thought of that approach, whether this would be compatible with the DSA and the guidelines.

And the second question is slightly different, on this topic, but on the AI trilogues,

Which did not succeed last night from my understanding.

Could you maybe provide us some color with the reason for the delay and what's next? Thank you very much. Yes.

Yeah, it's true that many companies they are providing already different parental tools to protect minors, but on a general level, when we have been investigating these these tools, we can say that it seems that they are not very effective,

often so more work is needed, and also when we speak about protection of minors,

it's often the case that everybody wants to a little bit put the responsibility. Someone else on that.

So it's important that everybody has to have their responsibility here.

The online platforms, they have a certain responsibility to make sure that the minors who are younger than according to their terms and conditions, who are able to have accounts there,

are not having access to those platforms, and also that the content is age appropriate and a strong privacy,

safety and security is ensured when minors are using.

The services, so we want to make sure that our online environment is safe for everybody and especially for children, and online platforms,

they are playing a very important role here because we know that they are doing big business and there is really limits how you can do business on,

on the really expense of people's wellbeing,

and this is also the reason why one month ago we published preliminary.

We findings on TikTok and the very addictive design of the TikTok, because we see that it's very harmful,

especially for minors, that TikTok is trying to keep them online all the time.

So we have all the time work ongoing on online platforms to make sure that they are taking their responsibility and they are really assessing and mitigating the risks that they are posing,

and also a few weeks ago, we opened a broad.

Against Snapchat,

and there are also several sectors now to where we are focusing also to make sure that they are taking their responsibilities on that.

So parental tools are very important also, but they have to be effective,

and we don't see that it's like you could avoid your responsibilities by putting it only for the parents,

so everybody has to play their role here.

And when it comes to AI omnibus and for the trialogues on that, so it's our utmost importance, of course,

to conclude the trialogues as soon as possible, and I see that all co-legislators are very committed to that,

that we want to really conclude this.

But at the same time, when we want to simplify the things and make it easier for businesses to comply with our rules,

it's very important that we have good text here that it's crystal clear for everybody what is meant here,

and that's why some extra work is now needed to conclude the trilogues. Thank you EVP.

We'll start taking the last few questions before we conclude, starting up here. Pair boat for VRT Belgian television.

Do you expect META or do you want META to start using the H verification app?

What we found in our preliminary findings is that they don't have effective tools now really to check the age of the user,

because you can quite easily just put the wrong birth date there and it's not really checked if it's correct,

and like 10% of the kids.

Younger than 13 years old seems to use Instagram and Facebook,

so we are expecting from them that they will have stronger solutions for that.

And now we will continue, of course, to work together with Mehta to look at what kind of solutions could take place there,

but it's clear that this is not enough for what they are doing now.

I don't see hands raised in the room or online, so with that we can conclude our press point.

Thank you, Executive Vice President,

and I'd just like to remind you all that we have published just now our press release on the age verification app as well as our press release on the preliminary DSA findings mentioned by the EVP.

Thank you very much, have a good morning.