Five member states are already experimenting with this solution this year, but not all seem to be on track. At the press conference it was pointed out that France and Denmark were far behind, while Greece, Spain and Italy were lagging behind. Therefore, some experts are skeptical that the digital wallet will come into force within the established time frame.
An alternative to the American model
Players already perceptible in the European age verification market include Yoti, which TikTok uses for this purpose in Europe along with other methods such as credit cards and documents, and Persona, which is an identity and age verification provider used by platforms such as Roblox, Discord and Reddit.
The latter uses a much more data-intrusive model, which the Commission says it wants to avoid. In fact, its services include fingerprint verification, facial recognition, checking a person’s face to compare it with a face on a specific list, and storing all such data for up to three years.
In February 2026 it also appeared that Persona has made thousands of files publicly available on the Internet. The company responded that it was an isolated testing environment and that the data had not actually been exposed, and that it did not cooperate with US government agencies in sharing user data with it.
In any case, the US model shows the risk of age verification based on the mass collection and analysis of identifying data. This highlights the need for a European alternative that takes this concept to another level: not so much “prove your identity so I can check your age” but “just prove your age without revealing anything else.”
Brussels promotes open source architecture, leaving room for both member states and market players to publish national or derivative versions. During the press conference, Scytales and T-Systems were mentioned as services to watch out for in Europe. Officials say whoever develops the system will still have to consider the “triangular” architecture: A third party certifies that the user meets the required characteristics, i.e. is over a certain age, and the site does not receive documents or other personal information. To make the concept clearer, the Commission cited experiences with Covid certificates.
A glaring loophole
However, there remains a clear distance between the technical promise and the social reality of the problem. As stated at the press conference, mini wallet seems aimed primarily at preventing the website from finding out too much about the user, much less solving the most minor of all workarounds: a minor using an adult’s phone, credentials, or ID. In other words, the system may reduce the amount of personal data in circulation, but it does not automatically eliminate the risk of circumventing age verification in practice.
Despite this, a mini-wallet seems to be the most promising solution at the moment. However, the Commission clarified that this was not the only possible solution. The door remains open to alternatives, provided they are “equally effective”. Pornhub is already involved in a pilot phase, and other operators have been invited to participate.
In compact, Europe could become the first major policy laboratory where age verification ceases to be a formality and becomes a real infrastructure, with all the promises and, not to be overlooked, all the risks that come with it.
This story originally appeared on WIRED Italy and was translated from Italian.