EU updates age-check app after vulnerabilities found

The European Union said Friday that it was updating an age verification app unveiled this week after independent developers pointed to vulnerabilities. EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday that the app, which aims to better protect children from online harm, was "technically ready".

But following online claims that the system could be easily hacked, Brussels said "immediate steps" had been taken to address those issues.

"A new version" is being updated, European Commission spokesman Thomas Regnier told reporters in Brussels.


Although the app is not yet available for people to download, its code has been published on the developer platform GitHub.

"Why did we decide to have it open source: to be transparent and to allow, indeed, for the community, for developers to test it, to play with it, to potentially help us to improve it," Regnier said.

Brussels has been under pressure to come up with solutions to safeguard children online as France and other EU nations move ahead with plans to ban social media for children under a certain age.

EU officials said the app aims, for instance, to replace pop-up banners asking users to click to confirm they are over 18 to access adult content sites.

They have also been candid that it the app is not bulletproof and could be sidestepped by using a virtual private network (VPN) or low-tech workarounds such as a minor enlisting an older friend or sibling to enable access to restricted sites.

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