Five member countries are already experimenting with the solution this year, but they don’t all seem to be on the same page. It was pointed out at the press conference that France and Denmark are far ahead, while Greece, Spain, and Italy are lagging. This is why some experts are skeptical that the digital wallet will come into force within the established time frame.
An Alternative to the US Model
Among the players already visible in the European market for age verification are Yoti, which TikTok is using in Europe for this purpose along with other methods such as credit cards and documents, and Persona, which is an identity- and age-verification provider used by platforms such as Roblox, Discord, and Reddit.
The latter has a much more data-intrusive model, one that the Commission says it wants to avoid. In fact, its services include fingerprint verification, face recognition, screening a person’s face to compare it to one on a particular list, and the retention of all such data for up to three years.
In February 2026, it also emerged that Persona publicly exposed thousands of files online. The company responded by saying that this was an isolated testing environment and that the data was not actually exposed, and, in addition, that it does not work with US government agencies to provide it with data on users.
In any case, the US model shows the risks of age verification based on massive collection and analysis of identifying data. This highlights the need for a European alternative, one that shifts the concept to another level: not so much “prove your identity so I can check your age” as “just prove your age, without revealing anything else.”
Brussels is promoting an open source architecture, leaving room for both member states and market players to publish national or derivative versions. Scytales and T-Systems were mentioned during the press conference as services to look to in Europe. Whoever develops the system will still have to consider a “triangular” architecture, officials say: A third party certifies that the user meets the required attribute, i.e., being above a certain age, without the site receiving documents or other personal data. To make the concept more understandable, the Commission cited the experience of Covid certificates.
A Glaring Loophole
There remains, however, a clear distance between the technical promise and the social reality of the problem. As recounted in the press conference, the mini-wallet seems designed primarily to prevent the site from learning too much about the user, but much less to solve the most trivial bypass of all: a minor using an adult’s phone, credentials, or ID. In other words, the system may perhaps reduce the amount of personal data in circulation, but it does not automatically eliminate the risk of age verification being bypassed in practice.
Despite this, the mini-wallet currently appears to be the most promising solution. The Commission has clarified, though, that it is not the only possible solution. The door remains open to alternatives, provided they are “equally effective.” Pornhub is already involved in the pilot phase, while other operators have been invited to participate.
In short, Europe could become the first major policy laboratory where age verification stops being a formality and becomes a real infrastructure, with all the promise and—not to be overlooked—all the risks that this entails.
This story originally appeared in WIRED Italia and has been translated from Italian.
