The European Digital and Telecommunications Ministers met in Luxembourg on Friday 6 June for the Telecommunications Council. Unsurprisingly, the two main texts on the agenda, presented for discussion and approval, were validated by the EU27.
Detailed in our previous pages, these two documents concern the resilience of European networks (see EUROPE 13653/11) and the EU’s preparedness to defend itself against major cybersecurity crises (see EUROPE 13653/12), known as the ‘EU Blueprint on cybersecurity’.
“Poland is the most attacked European country. Last year alone, we had over 100,000 incidents”, said Krzysztof Gawkowski, Poland’s Minister for Digital Affairs. And to point out that Russia is the main adversary when it comes to these attacks.
Protection of minors on platforms. But the highlight of the meeting was the protection of minors online, an issue recently highlighted by France, Greece and Spain, who co-signed a non paper calling on the EU to tackle three major challenges which includes “the imperative for establishing in Europe the principle of a digital-age majority for online social networks” (see EUROPE 13643/10). The three countries are also promoting the inclusion in all connected devices of “mandatory and built-in age verification solutions and parental control software”.
The French Minister Delegate for AI and Digital, Clara Chappaz, was very clear when she arrived at the EU Council. “We expect the Commission to make the principle of age verification for social networks very clear in the guidelines currently being drawn up”, she said (see EUROPE 13639/18).
At present, the guidelines submitted for consultation by the Commission as part of the Digital Services Act (DSA) do not focus sufficiently on this issue, according to several countries.
As such, seven countries have clearly indicated their support for the proposals submitted by Greece, France and Spain. Some of them stressed the need to take account of the specific characteristics of the Member States in any new rules. Others supported the objective, but were more cautious about the method.
While France is pushing for a minimum age for network access of 15, other countries are considering a different age. Bratislava suggests a ban before the age of 16, said Slovakia’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the EU, Mária Malová. As for Italy, it already restricts access to minors, but for under the age of 13.
For the French minister, Clara Chappaz, the solution is obvious: “We also discussed, during the Council, the opportunity for each Member State to be able to decide what is the age they want the kids to be able to access social networks. It might depends on culture, history”.
Denmark, which takes over the Presidency of the EU Council on 1 July, is very much in favour of a more effective verification system. Caroline Stage Olsen, the Danish Minister for Digital Affairs, stressed the urgency of the issue at a joint press briefing with her French counterpart.
To see the non paper submitted by Greece, France and Spain: https://aeur.eu/f/h81 (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre and Léa Marchal)