- El Consejo Europeo de Protección de Datos ha aprobado por unanimidad, a iniciativa de la Agencia, empezar a trabajar en la definición de directrices para la verificación de la edad en Internet.
- La Agencia propuso en diciembre un sistema de verificación de la edad que proteja a niños y adolescentes del acceso a contenidos inadecuados garantizando el anonimato de los adultos.
The Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) promotes the drafting by the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) of guidelines for age verification systems on the Internet. This work, approved unanimously at the Agency’s initiative at a plenary meeting in Brussels, marks the start of joint action by data protection authorities on this issue.
Last December, the Agency presented a Decalogue setting out the principles that an age verification system should comply with, proposing an age verification system to protect children and adolescents from accessing inappropriate content while guaranteeing the anonymity of adults when surfing the Internet.
These principles were complemented by a practical and effective proposal for a system of age verification and protection of minors on the Internet from access to adult content, demonstrating the technical feasibility of protecting minors from access to inappropriate content while ensuring the anonymity of adults when surfing the Internet.
The age verification systems currently used on the Internet – self-declaration of age, sharing credentials with the content provider, having the content provider estimate the age or relying on trusted third parties – have proven inefficient or have risks such as the location of minors, lack of certainty about the declared age, exposure of identity to different online interlocutors, mass profiling, or the collection and processing of unnecessary data, among others.
This week the Council of Ministers has approved the creation of a Working Group chaired by the Ministry for Digital Transformation, and in which the AEPD participates along with other public bodies, which aims to improve the protection of minors in accessing content on the Internet with the proposal of a technological solution that allows effective verification of age while maintaining maximum guarantees of privacy and data protection.
The protection of children and adolescents on the Internet is one of the Agency’s priority lines of action, as set out in its Global Strategy for Minors, Digital Health and Privacy. The AEPD also forms part of the committee of experts to protect children and adolescents in the digital environment launched by the Ministry of Youth and Children.