Spid mandatory for adult sites, what will happen from 2025 –

Luca De Lellis

October 12, 2024

As soon as the news came out on the web, controversy immediately erupted mixed with concern among those who use red light content online. But will we really now have to insert our Spid containing all our sensitive data to watch videos suitable for an adult audience? This is the question many have asked themselves in the last 24 hours. It therefore seems useful to shed some light on this aspect, because the situation is a little different and user privacy seems to be safe. Rewinding the tape, everything arose after Agcom – in order to protect minors from the dangers they may encounter on the Internet – approved the Age Verification, i.e. a regulation that establishes the methods for ascertaining the age of majority of online users..

The need of the Communications Regulatory Authority is to prevent minors, who until now with a simple click could lie about their age and access those types of content, from using it as established by the Caivano decree. Special guidelines were therefore introduced, approved on 7 October by Parliament, and immediately sent to the European Commission for the definitive green light, so that they can begin to be effective in the first months of 2025. What is important to know, first of all, is that the Spid is not the only way of verifying the user’s age, since it will be up to the different platforms to establish how to check it.

And then, even more importantly, to guarantee the requirement of “strengthened” confidentiality – explains IlFattoQuotidiano.it – ​​the Authority’s specifications contemplate an age verification system that makes use of the so-called “double anonymity” system, for which you do not need to let proof of age providers know for which service age verification is performed. Agcom, the newspaper says, wants independent and certified third-party bodies to verify the age, working through a double step: first the identification and then the authentication of the person for each access to the adult content platform. And obviously, that they are able to guarantee user privacy.