European Commissioner for Internal Market
Mr. Thierry Breton
MINISTER FOR INDUSTRY,
BUSINESS AND FINANCIAL
AFFAIRS
Age verification on digital services
Dear Mr. Thierry Breton,
To mitigate the adverse impact of minors accessing harmful content there is
an urgent need to establish efficient solutions on age verification on digital
services.
We know you share our ambition to ensure privacy, safety and security to
minors, and we appreciate the Commission’s efforts to reduce children’s ex-
posure to adult-only content online through the DSA. Thus, we appreciate the
possibility provided by the Commission to influence the development of a
voluntary standard for age verification through a working group. We would
very much like to participate in this group.
Nevertheless, in the absence of established legal standards, there is still an
urgent need for mandatory age verification measures. Only by making it man-
datory, we are effectively protecting our minors from inappropriate and harm-
ful content. Therefore, we kindly request the Commissioner to provide more
details on the additional measures the Commission intends to implement in
order to prevent minors from accessing digital services offering unsuitable
content for younger age groups.
The Danish Government has been working on a legislative proposal on age
verification measures. However, it has come to our knowledge, that the DSA
and the E-commerce directive most likely prohibit Member States from adopt-
ing or maintaining national legislation on age verification. Therefore, we have
suspended our intentions on national legislation.
Nevertheless, shielding minors from harmful content online remains of utmost
importance for the Danish Government. We hope the Commission still share
our concerns and will work to create efficient age verification mechanisms
that can quickly be put into effect at EU level.
We remain at your disposal for further collaboration on this important matter.
Yours sincerely,
Morten Bødskov
Minister for Industry,
Business and Financial Affairs
Marie Bjerre
Minister for Digital Government
and Gender Equality
Jakob Engel-Schmidt
Minister for Culture
MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY,
BUSINESS AND FINANCIAL
AFFAIRS
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