Italy’s communications and media authority is looking to adopt new age verification requirements around adult-themed products and content.
AGCOM is seeking measures requiring Italian media to enforce age verification checks for content relating to gambling, pornography and other adult-specific content and social media categories.
Media would also be required to use Italy’s Public Digital Identity System (SPID) to verify the age of Italian citizens and residents viewing such content. This will include gaming and betting platforms and unrestricted social media networks.
SPID, or another form of digital identity, will be required for accessing certain services, including gaming and betting platforms, and “social networks without restrictions.”
The regulator has factored customer privacy and data protection into its proposed framework. This comes at a time of heightened consumer concern around privacy and data across Europe, with consumers increasingly wary of the threat of fraud.
AGCOM will use ‘double anonymity’ to ensure privacy. Media firms will not be able to maintain data on the age verification of customers and will be unable to track age verifications across their networks and inventory.
The regulator’s proposal stated: “The measure enforces stronger age verification mechanisms to protect minors from content harmful to their physical, mental, or moral development, requiring stricter safeguards across information society services.”
AGCOM has informed the European Commission (EC) about the technical measures, and will conduct a review to ensure compliance with EU rules around data and user privacy. The proposed measures come at a time of heightened focus on digital ID technology and data protection across the EU.
The EU is in the process of adopting a form of digital ID approved by the political bloc’s legislators earlier this year. Upon approval of the European Digital Identity (e-ID), Romana Jerković, a Croatian MEP from the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D, HR), stated that digital ID could be a ‘catalyst for civic involvement, social empowerment, and a means to foster inclusivity in the digital age’.
Countries outside the EU are pursuing similar measures. In the UK, one of the Labour government’s biggest pieces of financial and tech legislation since coming into office in July is a bill around smart data, which includes provisions for digital ID.
Looking back to the recent developments in Italy, AGCOM will launch a ‘technical timetable’ to monitor developments in age verification systems and ensure ongoing adaptation to technological and regulatory changes.
