European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has declared the EU’s digital age-verification app technically ready, confirming it will be made available across member states in the coming weeks.
The app allows users to confirm their age by uploading a passport or national ID card. It shares no other personal data with the service being accessed and cannot be used to track users across platforms. The Commission describes it as fully anonymous and compliant with the highest European privacy standards.
The application is open source, meaning the code is publicly auditable. It works across all device types and is designed to integrate into national digital wallet systems. Von der Leyen, speaking alongside Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen, named Ireland, France, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Cyprus as frontrunner countries making progress toward integrating the app into their national wallet infrastructure.
The app is architecturally aligned with the EU Digital Identity Wallet program, which is scheduled for member-state rollout by the end of 2026. The Commission has positioned age verification as one of the first mainstream use cases for the broader EU digital identity stack, providing a reference implementation that private services can call without handling underlying credential data.
The release coincides with stepped-up enforcement of the Digital Services Act, which requires very large online platforms to prevent minors from accessing harmful content. Age verification is the mechanism through which that obligation is practically enforced. The Commission has faced pressure from member states and child safety advocates to provide a privacy-preserving alternative to the data-intensive age-check methods that some platforms have proposed.
The technical design uses zero-knowledge-style attestations, allowing a user’s device to prove a fact about a person’s age without exposing the underlying credential or creating a surveillance log. The Commission has said the implementation was developed in line with the European Digital Identity Wallet Architecture and Reference Framework and has been tested through the LSP Consortium Potential project.
Member states that have not yet committed to integrating the app can adopt it through their national wallet implementations or deploy it as a standalone option. The Commission has not announced a specific date for broad public availability beyond the indication that rollout is imminent.
Sources: European Commission, RTE News
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By Ji-seo Kim
