The Google company reaffirmed its opposition on Friday, June 13, to introduce age verification for online users in applications stores, characterizing its proposal its meta meta as “misleading”.
Age checking for online users in photo application stores: Shutterstock
Imposing this measure on Google Play or Apple’s App Store “would require sharing granular data on age with millions of developers who do not need them“, Google said in a post made on his blog, expressing”The concern about the risks this “solution” would represent for children“, AFP transmits, quoted by Agerpres.
This position is also shared by Apple. In a document published in February, the company stressed that “only a small part of Applications require age check “and that”the right place“To apply this check is limited to”websites and applications“In this case.
According to Google, this would also allow “Application developers to evade from responsibilities“, Being at the same time inefficient, because”Computers or other typically shared devices within families would not be covered“.
Google has responded to an advertising campaign launched in May by Meta (Facebook, Instagram), which requires “European regulations that require age verification and parents’ consent in the Application Store” in order to “protect better“Minors.
“Adolescents use 44 applications per week on average. Therefore, checking the age at the application store would simplify the lives of parents, which should confirm their child’s age, instead of doing it for each application ”Meta says on the Instagram site.
The European Regulation on digital services (DSA), which has entered into force last year, stipulates that the age of the users of services is the responsibility of the applications or sites itself. But some content providers, such as Aylo, support the age of the device at the device level and operating system. This approach “would change the protocols of the decentralized web, with hard to foresee consequences“, Google replies in a post on his blog. This exchange of replies comes in the context in which the problem gains land in France and Europe.
Last week, several EU countries, including France, Spain and Greece, have asked Brussels to continue to use online platforms by children,
Also, French President Emmanuel Macron has committed to prohibit social networks for children under 15 in France.
