The European Commission published principles for the protection of minors under the current Digital Services Act, calling online gambling one of the most dangerous digital activities for children.
Under the new Guidelines of the European Union’s (EU) primary executive arm, the European Commission, platforms that provide gambling-related content must use the best age assurance technology available in this political and economic union of 27 member states that are located primarily in Europe or risk violating the Digital Services Act (DSA).
Online gambling is listed as one of the digital activities that are considered most dangerous to children and adolescents by the Guidelines on measures to ensure a high level of privacy, safety, and security for minors online. These guidelines identify online gambling as a service that “poses a high risk to minors, and those risks cannot be mitigated by less restrictive measures”.
The Commission has determined that self-declared age checks are ineffective. According to their document, self-declaration doesn’t satisfy all the standards, and, as a result, it’s not regarded as a suitable age assurance technique to guarantee a high degree of minors’ privacy, safety, and security. Rather, gambling sites must use strong, privacy-preserving age verification procedures, such as cryptographic technologies or third-party anonymous tokens, to make sure customers are actually older than 18 before they can use the service.
Systems for estimating age won’t be adequate unless they adhere to strict privacy and accuracy requirements, because it’s simple for children to get around them and won’t be regarded as a reliable age assurance measure.
Additionally, the paper imposes strict restrictions on gambling-type game elements like loot boxes and randomized reward systems, which are aspects that have been characterized as potentially exploitative. For any product that offers aspects similar to gambling or random or unpredictable outcomes, it’s necessary to create friction between content and the acquisition of connected goods. “Ensure that minors aren’t exposed to manipulative design techniques that can lead to excessive, impulsive, or unwanted spending or addictive behaviors,” the Commission adds in its warning against persuasive design and manipulative nudges.
Also, advertising is strictly regulated. Children should not be exposed to “harmful, unethical, and unlawful advertising,” as they are especially vulnerable to the persuasive effects of commercial tactics. According to the dossier, this includes influencers’ indirect product placements and the use of virtual currencies to mask real-money expenditures.
However, compliance is formally voluntary, but the Commission will use the new principles to assess the compliance of sites with the DSA. The EU is developing its own age verification solution for integration into the EU Digital Identity Wallet.
