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How access to social media is changing for teenagers

From Meta to TikTok, big tech has introduced new features to make platforms safer. Mandatory age verification app coming to Europe: sites banned to minors armoured

by Alessandro Longo

3' min read

3' min read

For minors, social media have changed: more safeguards and limits. And, consequently, they are also for their parents. All the major platforms, Instagram and Tiktok above all (favoured by minors), restrict the accounts of minors and go to great lengths to see if the user is lying about their age. Tiktok and Instagram put a user's account between 17 and 13 years old 'private'. Under 13, they block it.

Tiktok alerts parents when a child reports content as inappropriate and, as of recently, also if they post a story or video visible to others. It has very fine parental control tools, as does Instagram, which also limits the interactions possible for a minor on the platform. It has refined algorithms not to show minors content that is dangerous for them (like on diets). Tiktok and Instagram also filter out offensive words and content from minors' accounts.

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It will not go unnoticed that if the child manages to lie about his or her age, this whole castle collapses. Tiktok and Meta use AI to catch liars: they analyse account data, behaviour, profile photo, etc. Caught minors suffer restrictions or (if under 13) account bans. In case of mistakes, the user can certify his or her age by sending documents or video selfies. YouTube in July started to do something similar, but only on an experimental basis in the US.

Soon, for us Europeans, these systems to protect minors could apply to all platforms and sites with content that is dangerous for minors, porn, betting, with generally unsuitable content for young people, therefore also on some very 'free' social networks such as X and Discord. Europe wants this and Italy is in the front row to implement it, with an app that will arrive by the end of the summer on an experimental basis. The United Kingdom and France have already implemented similar filters. But the European Commission says it can also regulate on lower ages, for example to prevent children under 13 from accessing social networks.

But how will it work in the EU? The details of the app - somewhat hidden on the European Commission's website, on a page for developers - make some important points.

After downloading the smartphone app, the user must select the preferred type of methodology for age verification: digital identity systems, an identity provider, bank account and, in the future, also passport reading.

Beware, Agcom has already specified that Spid (a tool we only have in Italy) is not good.

After choosing the verification tool, users can then access content subject to age limits, if they comply with them. From a PC, they have to share their age credentials by scanning the QR code displayed on the website (or other system chosen by the national regulator) with the app. If the user accesses an online service on a smartphone, the access operation is direct.

All this should take place by the end of the year in Italy. Next year, verification will instead take place via European digital wallets.

It has to be seen if there will be problems, like those in the UK and France.

The UK allows access by many methods, such as identity documents, credit card, code that arrives on a smartphone (it is the bank and telephone operator who check that the age is right, in these two cases). But also with a selfie. The site with a facial recognition should detect the age. However, the system is flawed and there are already cases of users who have managed to circumvent it with images from video games instead of their own face. In the UK, platforms such as Reddit, Discord, Grindr, Bluesky and X have also activated the system.

In France, companies such as Aylo (owner of Pornhub, Redtube, YouPorn) have temporarily blacked out their sites in the country in protest. They claim that the current regulatory framework is ineffective, fragmented and puts privacy at risk.

The EU system (different from the French one) was born privacy-by-design. But the doubt remains as to its actual adoption by sites. In any case, sooner or later, the road seems marked out: the web will become more regulated at an infrastructural level to filter access by minors. Europe wants this and at least the big socials have shown that they agree.

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