Meeting in the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) on Wednesday 24 September, MEPs rapidly debated the report by Christel Schaldemose (S&D, Danish) on the protection of minors online (see EUROPE 13667/16), which is due to be voted on in committee on 16 October.
At this stage, more than 400 amendments have been tabled and around ten compromise amendments have been agreed between the EPP, the Social Democrats, the Greens/EFA and The Left.
The points of disagreement remain the age verification methods, particularly their degree of intrusiveness. Some elected representatives are in favour of more restrictive options, requiring confirmation with proof - provided that the user’s complete anonymity is respected - while others are in favour of a more flexible approach, based on an estimate according to data or self-declaration, which is already in place on certain sites.
“We know that age verification is not a miracle solution, but it is an improvement. It’s not sufficient to leave it up to the parents, because in doing so we’d be missing out on a huge number of children”, said the rapporteur.
This argument was roundly rejected by her colleague Kosma Zlotowski (ECR, Polish) and other members of the Patriots for Europe group.
The European Commission states that further information on additional age verification methods or levels, and on the criteria applicable to these different methods, is being prepared and should be published in the coming months. (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)