英语阅读 | 欧洲要推出在线年龄验证APP了?

Europe rolls out（推出） online age verification app（在线年龄验证应用） to protect young people

节选自CNN

New York — Europe doesn’t want to hear any more excuses from tech platforms for why they can’t verify（核实；证实） users’ ages.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen(乌尔苏拉·冯德莱恩) on Tuesday announced a new European age verification app that will give users a sort of digital ID card to prove their ages online — without sharing their sensitive（敏感的） personal information with every site or app they want to access.

The move comes as tech platforms face growing global pressure to better protect young people online. But some tech leaders have raised practical and privacy concerns around collecting users’ sensitive information to verify their ages.

Europe’s new app will provide a centralized（集中的） solution that removes the burden for tech platforms to verify users’ ages.

“Online platforms can easily rely on our age verification app. So there are no more excuses,” von der Leyen and EU Commission Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen said in a statement. “Europe offers a free and easy to use solution that can shield（保护…免受）our children from harmful and illegal content.”

Users will verify their age on Europe’s new app by uploading（上传） a passport or ID card, according to the statement. Tech platforms can then access the app to verify whether a user is above or below a certain age — for example, 16 years old or 18 years old, depending on local requirements — but the user’s birthdate（出生日期） and other personal information won’t be shared.

Von der Leyen said the app will have the “highest privacy standards in the world” in a Wednesday post on LinkedIn.

Regulators（监管机构） around the world have pushed tech companies to create more safeguards（保护措施） for young users, or to restrict（限制） teens from accessing social media altogether.

Australia passed a world-first law banning children under 16 from accessing social media in December, and a handful of（少量的） other countries, including in Europe, want to follow suit（效仿）. In the United States, several states have passed legislation（立法） to force tech platforms to verify users’ ages and obtain parental consent（父母同意） when minors（未成年人） create accounts.

But some tech companies have raised practical and privacy concerns about age verification requirements. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has advocated for app stores to act as age verification clearinghouses（资料交换中心） that can share age information with app operators（应用运营方）; Google and Apple have argued that Zuckerberg’s proposal would force them to collect unnecessary personal data even from adult users who want to access innocuous（无害的） apps.

Europe’s new app is “technically ready” and will soon be available for EU citizens, according to the statement.

Meta, Snap, TikTok and Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the new app. Google declined to comment（拒绝评论）.

EU member states will be able to tailor the app to their domestic laws, including any age-related social media bans, European Commission technology spokesperson Thomas Regnier told CNN. Under the EU’s Digital Services Act, which regulates large tech platforms, sites required to restrict minor users will not be required to use the new app. However, they must prove that their alternate（替代的） age verification tools are equally effective or face sanctions（制裁）, Regnier said.

“This app gives parents, teachers, caretakers（看护人） a powerful tool to protect children,” von der Leyen and Virkkunen said. “We will have zero tolerance（零容忍） for companies that do not respect our children’s rights.”

roll out; online age verification app; verify; sensitive; centralized; shield…from…; upload; birthdate; regulators; safeguards; restrict…from…; a handful of; follow suit; legislation; parental consent; minors; clearinghouses; app operators; innocuous; declined to comment; alternate; sanctions; caretakers; zero tolerance

1. Many social media platforms now require users to ______ their age before creating an account.

A. roll out    B. verify

C. upload    D. restrict

2. The company decided to ______ a new tool that allows parents to monitor their children’s online activity.

A. follow suit    B. decline to comment

C. roll out    D. shield

3. Unlike separate systems for each website, a ______ identity verification system would allow users to prove their age once and use it everywhere.

A. sensitive    B. innocuous

C. alternate    D. centralized

4. After France passed a law banning smartphones in schools, several other countries are expected to ______.

A. follow suit    B. roll out

C. verify    D. upload

5. The government warned that tech companies failing to protect minors could face severe ______, including heavy fines.

A. safeguards    B. sanctions

C. caretakers    D. parental consent

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