The expert panel advising the European Commission on child safety online has recommended an EU-wide floor keeping under-13s off social media, and it wants the age checks that enforce it built on zero-knowledge proofs rather than identity documents or biometric age estimation.
The final report of the Special Panel on Child Safety Online, delivered to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels, will form the basis of legislation the Commission plans to propose after the summer. On age assurance, the panel recommends against processing identity documents or biometric data to estimate age, favouring zero-knowledge proof standards that let a user confirm they meet a minimum age without disclosing identity or personal data to platforms or verification providers. The report says the technology could be integrated into the EU Digital Identity Wallet, overseen by the European Board for Digital Services through common benchmarks and mandatory audits, and the approach aligns with the age verification app the Commission is already piloting across several member states.
The panel’s central structural proposal reverses the burden of proof: instead of regulators demonstrating that a platform harms children, platforms would have to demonstrate their services are safe before children can access them. “The burden of proof needs to be on providers, not regulators, parents and children,” the report states. Its scope extends beyond conventional social media to what it calls social media plus, taking in gaming platforms, messaging services, and AI companions, with generative AI flagged as a distinct risk because conversational systems can simulate empathy and authority. The panel also calls for binding rules, in place of today’s guidelines, requiring platforms to disable features such as infinite scrolling, autoplay, push notifications, and engagement-tuned recommendation systems by default.
The recommended age floor of 13 sits below the threshold of 16 that the European Parliament has backed for EU-wide age checks, though member states could set higher limits. Harmonisation pressure is real: the Commission told France last week that its national under-15 ban conflicts with the Digital Services Act, since age-limit enforcement on platforms is an EU competence, and several other member states pursuing national bans face the same constraint.
Co-authored by Professor Jörg Fegert of Ulm University Hospital and Dr. Maria Melchior of France’s INSERM, the report drew on panel sessions held between March and June with input from academics, governments, civil society, and bodies including the European Data Protection Board. Any legislation will need approval from EU governments and the Parliament, where the age threshold and the design of verification systems are expected to dominate debate.
Sources: European Commission, Tech Policy Press
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By Cass Kennedy
