Digital technologies have made internet and cloud services a natural part of everyday life – but not every offer is suitable for all age groups. Minors in particular need secure access to age-appropriate content to avoid risks such as cyberbullying, addictive design, harmful content or unwanted contact. Digital age verification, a balancing act between youth and data protection, is now technically easy.
This is exactly where the European Union began. The Digital Services Act (DSA) establishes a secure, trustworthy internet that protects the rights of young users. With the DSA, and especially Article 20, the EU Commission requires platform operators to protect minors. This step is a clear signal: the responsibility for a secure digital space must not lie solely with parents and children but must also be taken by providers and political decision-makers.
To accompany this law, the EU has published guidelines and concrete recommendations to help platforms better protect children and young people from risks on the internet. The guidelines address key challenges that young people face in everyday digital life. At the same time, the recommendations go beyond purely technical measures. They formulate a clear goal: children and young people should enjoy a high degree of privacy, self-determination and security online without their rights being unduly restricted. This is also a shared social responsibility.
These comprehensive guidelines are an important step. But they alone are not enough – concrete technical solutions are needed to ensure that the requirements can also be implemented. This is exactly where the work of Deutsche Telekom and T-Systems together with our partner Scytáles AB comes in. For the EU Commission, we developed the prototype of an age verification app (AV-App) as part of the DSA. This app meets two central requirements: It is both user-friendly and data protection compliant.
The AV-App ensures that children and young people can continue to enjoy the benefits of the internet, such as learning, creativity, and communication, while minimizing the risks they face online, such as exposure to harmful adult content and services. The crucial idea here is simple: users must be able to reliably verify their age without disclosing unnecessary personal information. It is sufficient to confirm that someone is 18 or older; date of birth, name or other sensitive information remain hidden. This not only protects privacy but also minimizes the risk of data falling into the wrong hands.
The process is deliberately designed to be uncomplicated. After downloading the app, secure access is first set up – for example, by means of a PIN or biometric recognition. The user then chooses how the age should be verified: via an identity document, a bank identity or, in the future, by reading the passport.
The app does not store any additional information but only transmits the confirmation that a certain age limit has been exceeded. This proof can be used to unlock access to content or services that are not suitable for minors. Most importantly, no user profiles are created. No one can track what content an individual user consumes.
The European Commission has provided this prototype for a privacy-friendly, secure open-source age verification solution based on EU Digital Identity Wallet. Deutsche Telekom and T-Systems have developed this age verification app and the associated software for service providers (verifiers) together with Scytáles.
The solution can be deployed by a Member State or another institution. They can adapt the open-source solution to their needs. The prototype of an age verification app provides legally binding proof that the user has reached a certain age. The app operators can configure the proof of age to an age level depending on national law and use case.
Privacy is fully maintained – a "gold standard" in the field of digital age verification.
Dirk Backofen, Head of Digital Identity Business at T-Systems
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This open-source solution from the EU Commission powered by Telekom and Scytáles is now available. Pilot projects are underway, and more features are coming soon. The following video explains how the AV-App works in detail.
The prototype AV-App is already being tested in several member states, including Denmark, Greece, Spain, France and Italy. Hopefully, Germany will follow soon. These pilots are an important step towards adapting the solution to national requirements while developing a harmonized system for the entire EU.
The technical basis for this is the EU Digital Identity Wallet (EUDI). It ensures that age verification can be implemented in a uniform, interoperable and trustworthy manner in all member states. At the same time, the modular architecture offers the flexibility to adapt the solution to national conditions.
In this way, the EU is not only creating legal certainty for platforms but also trust for parents and young people. The goal is clear: consistent, secure and privacy-friendly age verification that works across Europe and ensures the protection of the youngest internet users.
The digital world is full of opportunities, but it must not grow at the expense of the safety of our children. The protection of minors is not just a task for politics or companies – it is a shared social responsibility.
We believe in EU sovereignty, in the EUDI wallet and in the protection of minors. We are therefore proud that we at Deutsche Telekom and T-Systems can contribute to our joint social responsibility for the protection of minors on the internet with our technologies.
Together with the EU Commission and our partners, we want to ensure that children and young people can continue to use the possibilities of the internet – for learning, creativity and communication – and at the same time are protected from the risks lurking in the digital space. With this solution, we are taking a decisive step towards a secure, sovereign and trustworthy digital Europe.
