EU's Age-Gating Dilemma: How to Bar Children Without Building a Privacy Trap

The European Commission will propose social media restrictions for under-13s after summer, but faces a harder problem than legislation: verifying age without creating a surveillance infrastructure that violates GDPR. Digital ID wallets and device-level attestation have been floated, yet none of the current documentation indicates which technical approach the Commission favors—or whether any can reconcile age assurance with data minimization principles.