The European Union has announced updates to its new age verification application after developers identified security vulnerabilities shortly after its release.
The tool was presented earlier this week by European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, who said the app was “technically ready”.
However, after online claims that the system could be easily hacked, EU officials said “immediate steps” had been taken to address the issues.
European Commission spokesman Thomas Regnier confirmed that “a new version” of the app is being updated.
He also defended the decision to make the system open source, saying: “Why did we decide to have it open source: to be transparent and to allow, indeed, for the community, for developers to test it, to play with it, to potentially help us to improve it.”
The app’s code was published on GitHub, although it is not yet available for public download.
The system aims to better protect children online and to replace pop-up age confirmation banners that currently ask users to click to confirm they are over 18 before accessing adult content.
EU officials acknowledged that the app is not fully secure and could be bypassed using tools such as virtual private networks or other workarounds, including situations where minors use access provided by older peers.
