The European Commission has adopted a recommendation calling on EU Member States to deploy a privacy-preserving age verification app on smartphones by the end of 2026, marking a significant step toward mobile-based child safety controls across the bloc.
The app is designed to run on mobile devices and allow users to prove they meet a minimum age threshold without disclosing their exact date of birth, full identity, or other personal data. Member States can deploy the solution as a standalone mobile application or integrate it directly into a European Digital Identity Wallet, the mobile credential platform being developed under the eIDAS 2.0 regulation.
The Commission has published a technical blueprint for the app’s architecture and is asking each Member State to customize and produce its own version for citizens. The recommendation specifies steps to ensure cross-border interoperability, so that age credentials issued in one country will be recognized by platforms operating in another.
Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy Henna Virkkunen described the app as the next step toward protecting children online without restricting adult access to digital services.
The initiative falls under the EU’s Digital Services Act, which requires online platforms to maintain high standards of privacy and safety for minors. By channeling age verification through a dedicated mobile app rather than platform-specific solutions, the Commission aims to standardize the process and reduce the need for users to share identity documents with individual services.
The wallet integration option is particularly notable. The eIDAS 2.0 framework already requires Member States to offer digital identity wallets to all citizens and residents, and embedding age verification as a wallet-based credential would allow the feature to ride on existing mobile identity infrastructure rather than requiring a separate download.
Several EU Member States have already begun building national wallet implementations. Spain’s MiDNI app recently gained legal validity for in-person identification, and Romania has partnered with identity providers to bring wallet functionality to its citizens.
The Commission’s approach prioritizes anonymous, on-device proof-of-age technology, aiming to set a continental standard for privacy-preserving mobile age assurance.
Sources: European Commission, Reuters
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By the Mobile ID World Editorial Team
