The European Commission Considers Amending the General Data Protection Regulation to Make Digital Age of Consent Consistent
The European Commission published a Communication on its mandated two-year evaluation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on June 24, 2020 in which it discusses as a future policy development “the possible harmonisation of the age of children consent in relation to information society services.”
Currently, the GDPR allows individual Member States some flexibility in determining the national age of digital consent for children between the ages of 13 and 16. However, upon the two-year review, the Commission expressed concerns that the variation in ages across the EU results in a level of uncertainty for information society services–any economic activities taking place online–and may hamper “cross-border business, innovation, in particular as regards new technological developments and cybersecurity solutions.”
