While in Italy there is a debate about whether to extend the It-wallet to minors without parental authorization through a government amendment to the Pnrr decree and the possibility of making it truly useful by digitizing new documents (such as diplomas, school attendance certificates, residence attestations, Isee certifications, voter list registrations, and voter cards) is being studied, in Ireland a similar system could shield internet users who have not reached the age of majority from prohibited content, such as porn sites and possibly social media, since the Northern European state, along with Spain, is among the countries in the Old Continent intending to implement restrictive rules in this regard.
AGE VERIFICATION THROUGH DIGITAL WALLETS
According to the ministry of Frank Feighan, which is digitizing the country’s public administration, the system, currently in an embryonic phase, once finalized, “Will be able to facilitate secure age verification, as provided by Digital Ireland, and the implementation of the Online Safety Code, under which designated platforms must adopt age verification measures to help protect, in particular, children and young people from online dangers.”
SOCIAL MEDIA AND PORN IN THE CROSSHAIRS
The project, currently subject to a public consultation phase on the site gov.ie/DigitalWallet, primarily responds to European demands urging states to equip themselves with a virtual Wallet by the end of the year and is in a pilot phase during which it must demonstrate its effectiveness, ease of use for citizens, and obviously the security in storing the contained information. However, it remains to be clarified whether and to what extent it will still require the cooperation of platforms (social and porn).
Instead, its compatibility with privacy protection regulations should be undisputed: when attempting to access a site prohibited to under 16s, the government app should send only a “yes/no” confirmation to the platform based on the information contained in identity documents without any third party involved and without any unnecessary sharing of sensitive data.
QUESTIONS ON THE TABLE
Of course, it will then be up to the government to resolve the remaining doubts and prove that no trace remains in any database of the history of visited sites. This is a solution that makes the Irish government a party to the process aimed at locking down certain platforms to younger users.
In Italy, the opposite has recently been attempted, leaving platforms free to find the way to verify the age of majority provided that the systems meet certain privacy and security requirements but, as already reported several times, at the moment Agcom (the authority entrusted with the difficult task of enforcing the new rules) seems to have been ignored by most porn sites, still perfectly “in the clear,” that is reachable through the classic self-certification by ticking the 18+ box.
