Age assurance for Irish online platforms
An online platform should begin with the exact service, risk and applicable duty, then choose an age-assurance measure that is demonstrably effective, proportionate, privacy-preserving and accessible. There is no single method for every platform or feature.
Coimisiún na Meán's Online Safety Code applies to designated video-sharing platform services under Irish jurisdiction. DSA child-safety work and EU age-verification initiatives are related but should not be described as one universal Irish rule.
For: video-sharing, social, trust-and-safety, product, privacy and legal teams. This is independent information, not legal, compliance or security advice.
Start with scope
- Is the service designated or otherwise within a specific Irish/EU obligation?
- Which feature, content or transaction creates the age-related risk?
- Is the decision access, recommendation, messaging, purchase or safeguarding?
- Which threshold or age band is relevant?
Method choice
Declaration or inference may support low-risk age-aware design; higher-risk access can require stronger estimation, verification or reusable proof. Match the method to the protective purpose and provide another route for uncertain or excluded users.
Privacy and child rights
- Request only the necessary age result.
- Keep identity evidence away from the platform where possible.
- Do not reuse proofing for advertising or profiling.
- Use age-appropriate transparency.
- Provide timely appeal and accessible alternatives.
- Monitor whether the measure actually reduces the targeted harm.
EU proof-of-age opportunity
The feature-ready EU blueprint points toward reusable, threshold-only proof compatible with EUDI Wallets. Irish availability and accepted implementation must be confirmed; platforms still need verifier, fallback, fraud and governance design.
Evidence and limits
MyID separates enacted rules, official implementation material, testing and vendor claims. A source can establish what its publisher says; it does not prove that every product, deployment or interpretation works as claimed. Where Irish implementation remains unsettled, this page says so.
- Coimisiún na Meán Online Safety Code
- EDPB Statement 1/2025 on Age Assurance
- European Commission approach to age verification
- General Data Protection Regulation
Sources checked 22 August 2026. Re-check the linked primary material before making a consequential decision.
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