Fine Gael MEP calls for mandatory age verification for social media

Nina Carberry, Fine Gael MEP for the Midlands Northwest, met this week with Henna Virkkunen, European Commission Vice President and EPP colleague, to discuss the launch of a new age verification app that will improve online safety for minors.

The EU is expected to launch a pilot app next month that will trial stronger measures for verifying users on social media sites and other online platforms, aiming to limit access to age-inappropriate content.

The Fine Gael MEP said “the ease of access for minors to explicit and harmful content online is extremely worrying.”

“For too long, children have been able to bypass social media platform checks by entering a false date of birth and clicking a checkbox.”

MEP Carberry has advocated for Europe to play a bigger role in protecting children online with relation to harmful content since she was elected last June.

Most recently, Carberry addressed the European Parliament during a plenary debate highlighting the need for mandatory age and identity verification on social media platforms to protect minors online and prevent abusers from using fake accounts.

The meeting coincides with a new study by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), which emphasises the need for a coordinated effort from multiple stakeholders to protect children online, including age verification as one of the measures.