Yesterday, the European Commission announced that Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen will open today’s Safer Internet Forum 2025, taking place in Brussels in hybrid format with the theme “Why age matters: Protecting and empowering youth in the digital age.”

The protection of children online stands as one of the priorities of this Commission, as expressed by President Ursula von der Leyen. Today’s Forum will contribute to the substantial work already accomplished at EU level, building upon three major pillars: the publication of guidelines on the protection of minors under the Digital Services Act, the release of an age verification blueprint, and enforcement actions to ensure adequate safeguards for minors on online platforms across the EU.

DSA Guidelines on Protection of Minors: A Comprehensive Framework

On July 14, 2025, the European Commission published its comprehensive Guidelines on the Protection of Minors under Article 28 of the Digital Services Act, marking a milestone in the Commission’s efforts to boost online safety for children and young people. The guidelines, now available in all 24 EU official languages, along with a family-friendly version, establish a benchmark for platform compliance while remaining non-binding.

Development Process

The guidelines were developed following an extensive consultation process that included:

  • Call for evidence (July 31 - September 30, 2024): gathering feedback on proposed scope, approach, and best practices to mitigate online risks for minors
  • Public consultation (May 13 - June 15, 2025): collecting stakeholder input on draft guidelines, with deadline extended following a successful workshop on June 4, 2025
  • Focus groups organized by European Schoolnet with support from the EU network of Safer Internet Centres, involving over 150 young people at European and national levels to identify gaps, areas for improvement, and potential unintended consequences
  • European Board for Digital Services consultations through its dedicated working group on the protection of minors

Core Principles and Scope

The guidelines apply to all online platforms accessible to minors, with the exception of micro and small enterprises. They are built on four foundational principles that must be considered holistically:

  1. Proportionality and appropriateness: Balancing measures with minors’ fundamental rights
  2. Protection of children’s rights: Considering all rights without discrimination
  3. Privacy, safety, and security by design: Integrating high standards into product design from the outset
  4. Age-appropriate design: Tailoring services to developmental needs of minors

Key Measures

The guidelines set out a non-exhaustive list of measures to protect children from online risks including grooming, harmful content, problematic and addictive behaviors, cyberbullying, and harmful commercial practices:

Risk Review: Platforms must conduct structured, recurring risk assessments identifying how minors engage with services, types of risks (based on the “5Cs” typology: content, conduct, contact, consumer, and cross-cutting risks), and effectiveness of existing safeguards.

Age Assurance: Implementing robust, reliable, accurate, non-discriminatory, and non-intrusive age verification methods, with the EU’s age verification blueprint serving as a minimum benchmark. Age estimation methods can temporarily be used for up to 12 months where effective age verification tools are not yet readily available.

Default Privacy Settings: Setting minors’ accounts to private by default, limiting interactions to approved contacts, disabling location sharing and tracking features unless explicitly enabled, and preventing visibility of minors’ profiles and content to non-approved users.

Content Moderation and Recommender Systems: Implementing child-safe content moderation practices, restricting engagement-based recommender algorithms for minors, and ensuring recommender systems do not present content based on profiling.

Addictive Design Features: Disabling features such as autoplay, infinite scroll, push notifications during nighttime hours, and removing elements like read receipts or streaks that encourage constant engagement.

Advertising Restrictions: Prohibiting targeted advertising based on profiling for minors, as already required under DSA Article 28(2).

Child-Friendly Reporting: Establishing accessible reporting channels and safety tools designed for minors, with clear explanations in child-friendly language.

The Commission will use these guidelines as a “significant and meaningful benchmark” when assessing platform compliance with Article 28(1) DSA, and they will inform national regulator enforcement actions across the EU.

Age Verification Blueprint: Privacy-Preserving Technical Solution

Parallel to the guidelines, the Commission developed a comprehensive technical solution for age verification, with two versions released in 2025.

First Version (July 14, 2025)

The Commission released the first version of an EU white-label age-verification blueprint on July 14, 2025, launching a pilot phase for testing and customization. This open-source solution enables users to prove they are over 18 (or other age thresholds) when accessing restricted adult content without revealing any other personal information, setting a new “gold standard” for privacy protection.

The blueprint is developed by the T-Scy consortium (composed of Scytales AB from Sweden and T-Systems International GmbH from Germany) under a two-year contract awarded by the Commission in early 2025.

Key technical features:

  • Based on open-source technology
  • User-friendly and privacy-preserving architecture
  • Full interoperability with future European Digital Identity Wallets (EUDIW) scheduled for rollout by end of 2026
  • Support for initial onboarding using national eIDs
  • Anonymous proof of age that doesn’t include any identifying information
  • Zero-knowledge proof technology ensuring privacy

Pilot countries: Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, and Spain were selected as frontrunners to engage with the Commission on the technical solution, with the aim of launching national age verification apps that can be integrated into national digital wallets or remain as standalone applications.

Second Version (October 10, 2025)

On October 10, 2025, the Commission released an enhanced second version of the age verification blueprint, introducing significant improvements:

  • Expanded onboarding methods: Addition of passports and identity cards alongside eIDs to generate proof of age
  • Digital Credentials API support: More user-friendly proof presentation method leveraging modern operating systems and browsers
  • Maintained privacy features: All privacy-preserving elements remain non-negotiable while allowing Member States to customize branding and language
  • Family-friendly documentation: Accompanied by a family-friendly version of the DSA guidelines on protection of minors, available in all 24 EU official languages

The blueprint is being thoroughly pilot tested with Member States, online platforms, end-users, and other stakeholders. End-user testing has been expanded with support of EU Safer Internet Centres, and at today’s Safer Internet Forum (December 4), end-users have the opportunity to test the age verification app and provide feedback.

Implementation timeline: The first customized apps are anticipated to be launched in early 2026, with future developments including integration of additional zero-knowledge proof technology for even greater privacy protection.

Enforcement Actions: Ensuring Platform Accountability

On October 17, 2025, the European Commission initiated its first investigative actions following the adoption of the guidelines on protection of minors, marking a crucial step in DSA enforcement.

Information Requests to Major Platforms

The Commission sent formal information requests to:

  • Snapchat
  • YouTube
  • Apple App Store
  • Google Play

These requests seek detailed information on:

  1. Age verification systems: How these platforms verify users’ ages and prevent minors from accessing age-inappropriate content
  2. Protection from illegal products: Measures preventing minors from accessing illegal products including drugs and vapes
  3. Protection from harmful material: Safeguards against content promoting harmful behaviors such as eating disorders

Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen stated: “We will do what it takes to ensure the physical and mental well-being of children and teens online. It starts with online platforms. Platforms have the obligation to ensure minors are safe on their services – be it through measures included in the guidelines on protection of minors, or equally efficient measures of their own choosing. Today, alongside national authorities in the Member States, we are assessing whether the measures taken so far by the platforms are indeed protecting children.”

Coordinated Action with National Authorities

To ensure effective enforcement across all platforms, large and small, the Commission is taking further actions through the European Board for Digital Services’ Working Group on the protection of minors, which has agreed to coordinate with competent national authorities to:

  • Identify platforms posing greatest risk for children
  • Check platforms’ compliance with required high level of child safety under DSA
  • Develop and share common tools for investigatory and enforcement steps to ensure consistency across the EU

This coordinated approach ensures that enforcement is not limited to very large online platforms but extends to all platforms accessible to minors throughout the European Union.

Historical Context: Building on Two Decades of European Commitment

The European Union’s commitment to child online safety has deep historical roots, beginning with the Safer Internet Programme launched in the 1990s and evolving through multiple phases:

  • 1999-2004: Safer Internet Action Plan
  • 2005-2008: Safer Internet Plus Programme
  • 2009-2013: Safer Internet Programme (Decision 1351/2008/EC)
  • 2015-2021: Funding under Connecting Europe Facility (CEF)
  • 2022-present: BIK+ Strategy under Digital Europe Programme

A particularly significant milestone was reached in February 2009, when the European Commission presented the “Safer Social Networking Principles for the EU” in Luxembourg. This groundbreaking document was developed through a collaborative Task Force established by the European Commission, including experts from various European countries working within the Safer Internet Programme on projects such as EAST (Easy to Stop-it) and EAST2.

As an external consultant for the Italian node (ADICONSUM) of the European Safer Internet Programme from 2007 to 2010, I had the privilege of contributing to these pioneering efforts. My involvement in the EAST project (January 2007 - December 2008) and EAST2 project (January 2009 - December 2010), along with participation in the European social networking Task Force from 2008 to 2010, provided valuable insights into protecting minors online while fostering responsible digital citizenship. This foundational work, focused on combining hotline and awareness-raising activities to increase Internet safety for minors, established principles that continue to inform today’s comprehensive child protection frameworks.

The BIK+ Strategy: Integrated Approach

These initiatives are integrated within the Better Internet for Kids (BIK+) strategy, adopted on May 11, 2022, ensuring that children are protected, empowered, and respected online through three pillars:

  1. Safe digital experiences: Protecting children from harmful and illegal online content, conduct, and risks
  2. Digital empowerment: Ensuring children acquire necessary skills and competences for informed choices
  3. Active participation: Respecting children’s views and involving them in shaping the digital environment

The strategy is supported by the network of Safer Internet Centres across all Member States, the Better Internet for Kids portal serving as the central resource hub, and international partnerships including collaboration agreements with Australia’s eSafety Commissioner and the UK’s Ofcom to advance child safety online.

Future Developments

The European Commission continues its commitment to child online safety with several initiatives in development:

  • EU Action Plan against cyberbullying: Expected in early 2026, following public consultation and call for evidence launched in 2025
  • Advisory panel on social media: Tasked with exploring the best approach for ensuring safe online experiences for minors on social media services, as announced by President von der Leyen
  • Digital Fairness Act proposal: Expected in 2026, which may further address digital issues related to minors not covered by the DSA

Today’s Safer Internet Forum, maintaining its youth-led format with active involvement of young people through the Youth Advisory Group and Youth Panel, represents a crucial platform for dialogue among all stakeholders committed to building a safer digital future for children across Europe and beyond.

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