Dynamic Coalition on data and trust: Stakeholders Speak – Perspectives on Age Verification – Pre 04 2025

12 May 2025 | 09:00 - 10:15 CEST | Room 7
Consolidated programme 2025

Session teaser

This session is meant as an introduction into the topic of age verification and aims to bring in viewpoints by various stakeholders. It will be focused on practical issues and case studies by different stakeholders.

Session description

This session launches a series of regional and global conversations on age verification, originally initiated by IGF Czechia. It aims to critically examine the complexities of age assurance systems, particularly the delicate balance between child protection, privacy rights, and digital inclusion. Participants will assess current and emerging age verification technologies and regulatory initiatives—highlighting, for example, Australia’s proposed social media ban for users under 16. The discussion will be informed by diverse perspectives from academia, civil society, youth, the technical community, the privacy sector, and government stakeholders. These insights will help identify enforcement gaps, risks of regulatory overreach, and opportunities for rights-respecting industry self-regulation. Youth perspectives and ethical considerations will be central to the dialogue, ensuring that age verification approaches protect users without enabling surveillance or exclusion. The outcomes of this session will be shared across National and Regional Initiatives (NRIs), contributing to an ongoing, multi-stakeholder exchange of best practices and policy development.

Format

We will bring in different speakers online and onsite and run a multistakeholder panel discussion. It will also serve as a warm-up for the main stage conference session on this topic on Wednesday.

Further reading

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17482798.2024.2435015

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0091743522000664?via%3Dihub

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17482798.2025.2480091

https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8963

People

Key participants:

• Natálie Terčová, IGF Czechia, speaker (remotely)
• Tatiana Tropina, ISOC, speaker (in person)
• Niels Zagema, YouthDIG fellow and Dutch Youth Representative European Affairs at National Youth Council (in person)
• Paulo Glowacki, EURid Youth Committee, speaker (remotely)

Moderator:

• Regina Filipová Fuchsová, EURid, (in person)

Transcript

Disclaimer: This is not an official record of the session. The DiploAI system automatically generates these resources from the audiovisual recording. Resources are presented in their original format, as provided by the AI (e.g. including any spelling mistakes). The accuracy of these resources cannot be guaranteed.

The Geneva Internet Platform will provide transcript, session report and additional details shortly after the session.