Europe doesn’t need an “internet passport” for age verification

Europe doesn’t need an “internet passport” for age verification

It looks like there will be EU-wide age restrictions for social media and other online services that might have content or designs that are unsuitable for kids. Some claim the European Commission is about to roll out an “internet passport” to enforce this, but that’s a misreading of the situation. Thanks to a major report that just landed, we are getting more details of what we really should expect from Europe’s online child safety crackdown. Tech Gets Real is a show about staying in control in a time of rapid technological change, presented from a European perspective. I'm veteran tech journalist David Meyer, and I've been covering tech policy for two decades. To contact me, please email david@techgetsreal.com [david@techgetsreal.com] or connect on: Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/superglaze.eurosky.social [https://bsky.app/profile/superglaze.eurosky.social] Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@superglaze [https://mastodon.social/@superglaze] Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davidmeyerwrites [https://www.facebook.com/davidmeyerwrites] LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmeyer2/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmeyer2/] REFERENCES: Ursula von der Leyen speech on age verification legislation https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/statement_26_1590 [https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/statement_26_1590] Child safety online report https://commission.europa.eu/document/download/d833504d-5ec3-4fac-945f-38e7d0bd5326_en?filename=Special-panel-report.pdf [https://commission.europa.eu/document/download/d833504d-5ec3-4fac-945f-38e7d0bd5326_en?filename=Special-panel-report.pdf] “Summary” of the report https://commission.europa.eu/document/download/4c5d55f1-9072-4bb9-a263-094461525ca6_en?filename=Child-Safety-Online-summary.pdf [https://commission.europa.eu/document/download/4c5d55f1-9072-4bb9-a263-094461525ca6_en?filename=Child-Safety-Online-summary.pdf] Interface page on national age verification plans https://www.interface-eu.org/publications/social-media-age-gating-eu [https://www.interface-eu.org/publications/social-media-age-gating-eu] Le Monde on European Commission chastising France https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2026/07/06/eu-tells-france-to-amend-social-media-ban-law_6755209_7.html [https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2026/07/06/eu-tells-france-to-amend-social-media-ban-law_6755209_7.html] Euronews on viral “internet passport” claims https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/07/13/no-the-eu-is-not-about-to-censor-access-to-the-internet [https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/07/13/no-the-eu-is-not-about-to-censor-access-to-the-internet] Guardian on Australia exploring VPN restrictions https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jul/11/most-popular-porn-sites-now-have-age-checks-for-australians-but-online-watchdog-to-assess-vpn-loopholes [https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jul/11/most-popular-porn-sites-now-have-age-checks-for-australians-but-online-watchdog-to-assess-vpn-loopholes]

Why Ireland is a big problem for Europe's tech rules

European lawmakers are worried that Ireland will favour US Big Tech as it takes a major role in legal negotiations over the second half of 2026. The country, which largely relies on Big Tech for its tax revenues, has assumed the Presidency of the EU Council and will steer the Council’s work on bills like the Tech Sovereignty Package, the revisions to the Cybersecurity Act, and the Digital Omnibus, which could see the watering-down of the General Data Protection Regulation. Tech Gets Real is a show about staying in control in a time of rapid technological change, presented from a European perspective. I'm veteran tech journalist David Meyer, and I've been covering tech policy for two decades. If you like this, please hit like and subscribe, and share it with others who might find it useful. REFERENCES: Schwab and Echeverria’s letter to Commissioner McGrath https://enforce.ie/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Letter-to-Commissioner-McGrath-signed-by-MEP-Arias-Echeverria.pdf [https://enforce.ie/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Letter-to-Commissioner-McGrath-signed-by-MEP-Arias-Echeverria.pdf] Wikipedia article on Apple-EU tax dispute https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple%E2%80%93EU_tax_dispute [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple%E2%80%93EU_tax_dispute] Irish Times on DPC not collecting fines https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2026/01/12/data-protection-commission-owed-more-than-4-billion-in-fines/ [https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2026/01/12/data-protection-commission-owed-more-than-4-billion-in-fines/] Irish Times on Apple, Microsoft and Eli Lilly’s outsized tax role https://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/2026/02/19/three-multinational-companies-paid-close-to-50-of-states-corporate-tax-in-2024/ [https://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/2026/02/19/three-multinational-companies-paid-close-to-50-of-states-corporate-tax-in-2024/] EU Observer on Niamh Sweeney’s selection as Irish DPC https://euobserver.com/4580/outrage-as-ireland-picks-ex-meta-lobbyist-as-new-data-protection-chief/ [https://euobserver.com/4580/outrage-as-ireland-picks-ex-meta-lobbyist-as-new-data-protection-chief/] Politico on delayed DSA enforcement for X https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-exhales-brussels-fines-elon-musk-x/ [https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-exhales-brussels-fines-elon-musk-x/] Irish Council for Civil Liberties demanding Irish recusal https://www.iccl.ie/press-release/ireland-recuse-eu-presidency-digital-files-enforce/ [https://www.iccl.ie/press-release/ireland-recuse-eu-presidency-digital-files-enforce/]

The US Supreme Court may have doomed Big Tech in Europe

The US Supreme Court’s Slaughter ruling on Monday, which overturned longstanding precedent called Humphrey’s Executor, is seriously bad news for American companies who handle Europeans’ personal data. That’s because the ruling destroyed the independence of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which is an essential part of a deal that enables transatlantic data flows. And now Max Schrems, who blew up that deal’s predecessors, is going in for the kill. Tech Gets Real is a show about staying in control in a time of rapid technological change, presented from a European perspective. I'm veteran tech journalist David Meyer, and I've been covering tech policy for two decades. If you like this, please hit like and subscribe, and share it with others who might find it useful. REFERENCES: US Supreme Court ruling in Trump v. Slaughter https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/25-332_qn12.pdf [https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/25-332_qn12.pdf] My 2023 Fortune article on the EU-US Data Protection Framework https://fortune.com/europe/2023/07/10/us-eu-trans-atlantic-data-privacy-framework-meta-schrems-cjeu/ [https://fortune.com/europe/2023/07/10/us-eu-trans-atlantic-data-privacy-framework-meta-schrems-cjeu/] Noyb’s statement on the Slaughter ruling’s implications https://noyb.eu/en/us-supreme-court-just-blew-eu-us-data-transfers [https://noyb.eu/en/us-supreme-court-just-blew-eu-us-data-transfers] Noyb’s letter to the European Commission https://noyb.eu/sites/default/files/2026-06/Letter_noyb_EU-US_data_transfers.pdf [https://noyb.eu/sites/default/files/2026-06/Letter_noyb_EU-US_data_transfers.pdf] My most recent ISMG article on EU tech sovereignty https://www.databreachtoday.com/france-germany-boost-digital-sovereignty-push-a-32031 [https://www.databreachtoday.com/france-germany-boost-digital-sovereignty-push-a-32031]

Why Anthropic is right to fear Chinese AI distillation

US AI leader Anthropic has accused China’s Alibaba of “illicitly” copying the knowledge from its Claude model in a process called distillation. Here’s what that means – and why companies like Anthropic and OpenAI have so much to fear from the practice . Tech Gets Real is a show about staying in control in a time of rapid technological change, presented from a European perspective. I'm veteran tech journalist David Meyer, and I've been covering tech policy for two decades. If you like this, please hit like and subscribe, and share it with others who might find it useful. REFERENCES: Wikipedia article on Prohibition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibition_in_the_United_States [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibition_in_the_United_States] Wall Street Journal on Anthropic’s Alibaba accusation https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anthropic-claims-alibaba-ran-brazen-campaign-to-access-its-claude-ai-model-69d7a392 [https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anthropic-claims-alibaba-ran-brazen-campaign-to-access-its-claude-ai-model-69d7a392] Alibaba’s Qwen terms of service https://qwen.ai/termsservice [https://qwen.ai/termsservice] Wired’s transcript of Elon Musk’s OpenAI lawsuit appearance https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-distill-openai-models-partly-xai/ [https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-distill-openai-models-partly-xai/] DeepSeek’s distillation announcement in early 2025 https://github.com/deepseek-ai/deepseek-r1 [https://github.com/deepseek-ai/deepseek-r1] Nathan Lambert on Z.ai [http://Z.ai]’s GLM-5.2 https://www.interconnects.ai/p/glm-52-is-the-step-change-for-open [https://www.interconnects.ai/p/glm-52-is-the-step-change-for-open]

Inside the UK's under-16 social media ban - Heather Burns interview

In this extended episode of Tech Gets Real, veteran digital policy expert Heather Burns joins the show to chat about the UK’s plans to ban social media for under-16s, and to force Apple and Google to conduct surveillance on the photos people take on their phones. It’s a fascinating conversation about how safety tech vendors may have defeated digital rights advocates in the battle for the attention of British politicians. Heather Burns’s book, Understanding Privacy https://www.amazon.com/-/en/Heather-Burns-ebook/dp/B0C9JSW7S7 [https://www.amazon.com/-/en/Heather-Burns-ebook/dp/B0C9JSW7S7] Heather’s website https://heatherburns.tech/ [https://heatherburns.tech/] Heather’s profile on Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/heatherburnstech.bsky.social [https://bsky.app/profile/heatherburnstech.bsky.social] Tech Gets Real is a show about staying in control in a time of rapid technological change, presented from a European perspective. I'm veteran tech journalist David Meyer, and I've been covering tech policy for two decades. If you like this, please hit like and subscribe, and share it with others who might find it useful. REFERENCES: BBC on Makerfield by-election https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yzgpe2ld3o [https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yzgpe2ld3o] UK government announcement on client side scanning https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-plans-to-stop-children-taking-sharing-or-viewing-nude-images [https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-plans-to-stop-children-taking-sharing-or-viewing-nude-images] UK government announcement on social media age limit https://www.gov.uk/government/news/social-media-to-be-banned-for-under-16s-in-landmark-government-move-to-givekids-their-childhood-back [https://www.gov.uk/government/news/social-media-to-be-banned-for-under-16s-in-landmark-government-move-to-givekids-their-childhood-back] Deutsche Welle on Elon Musk suing German broadcaster ZDF https://www.dw.com/en/elon-musk-sues-zdf-hunt-for-migrants-belfast/a-77571443 [https://www.dw.com/en/elon-musk-sues-zdf-hunt-for-migrants-belfast/a-77571443] My ISMG article on the client-side scanning news https://www.govinfosecurity.com/uk-vows-device-level-controls-for-smartphone-underage-nudes-a-31933 [https://www.govinfosecurity.com/uk-vows-device-level-controls-for-smartphone-underage-nudes-a-31933] Politico on Italy’s Meloni rejecting social media age ban https://www.politico.eu/article/meloni-says-social-media-ban-for-kids-is-no-panacea/ [https://www.politico.eu/article/meloni-says-social-media-ban-for-kids-is-no-panacea/] Edrith blog post on age ban arguments https://www.edrith.co.uk/p/social-media-ban-responses-to-10 [https://www.edrith.co.uk/p/social-media-ban-responses-to-10] Southport public inquiry website https://www.southport.public-inquiry.uk/ [https://www.southport.public-inquiry.uk/]