Session
Organizer 1: Civil Society, Eastern European Group
Organizer 2: Private Sector, African Group
Organizer 2: Private Sector, African Group
Speaker 1: Natalie Tercova, Technical Community, Eastern European Group
Speaker 2: Paulo Glowacki, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 3: Gregorio Lima Antonia Nirvana, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 4: Millenium Anthony, Civil Society, African Group
Speaker 2: Paulo Glowacki, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 3: Gregorio Lima Antonia Nirvana, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 4: Millenium Anthony, Civil Society, African Group
Format
Roundtable
Duration (minutes): 60
Format description: The roundtable format is essential for this session as it prioritizes engagement over passive discussion, ensuring that all participants—not just speakers—can actively contribute. Age verification is a complex and evolving issue that requires multi-stakeholder input, making an open, interactive dialogue the most effective approach. The 60-minute session will begin with collaborative idea mapping and interactive polling to capture diverse viewpoints, followed by facilitated discussions and breakout interventions to explore challenges and solutions in depth. This format ensures a balanced exchange between stakeholders bridging online and onsite participation.
Duration (minutes): 60
Format description: The roundtable format is essential for this session as it prioritizes engagement over passive discussion, ensuring that all participants—not just speakers—can actively contribute. Age verification is a complex and evolving issue that requires multi-stakeholder input, making an open, interactive dialogue the most effective approach. The 60-minute session will begin with collaborative idea mapping and interactive polling to capture diverse viewpoints, followed by facilitated discussions and breakout interventions to explore challenges and solutions in depth. This format ensures a balanced exchange between stakeholders bridging online and onsite participation.
Policy Question(s)
1. How can age verification mechanisms effectively protect children from harmful content (e.g., CSAM, online exploitation, inappropriate material) while upholding users' privacy rights and data protection standards
2. How can age verification be implemented without disproportionately excluding vulnerable or marginalized populations ?
3.What alternative approaches (e.g., digital literacy education, parental controls, AI-powered content filtering) could be used to complement or replace age verification while still protecting minors online?
What will participants gain from attending this session? Participants will gain a comprehensive understanding of the effectiveness, risks, and ethical concerns associated with various age verification methods, including their potential for misuse or exclusion of vulnerable groups. The session will explore the tensions between child safety and privacy, particularly regarding data collection, surveillance risks, and digital identity management.
Attendees will also gain insights into existing age verification solutions, identifying enforcement gaps and risks of regulatory overreach while assessing how industry self-regulation can align with government initiatives. The discussion will examine strategies to harmonize global regulations to prevent fragmentation and compliance burdens for platforms.
Through interactive dialogue, participants will explore who should be responsible for enforcement (platforms, third-party verifiers, or governments) and discuss alternative approaches, such as digital literacy, parental controls, and community-based moderation. By the end, attendees will leave with best practices and policy recommendations that balance child safety, privacy, and digital rights.
Description:
This session will critically examine the challenges of balancing child protection, privacy rights, and digital inclusion in age verification. It will explore emerging age verification technologies, assessing their compliance with digital rights standards while identifying enforcement gaps and risks of regulatory overreach. Participants will evaluate how industry self-regulation can align with government initiatives and discuss alternative strategies, such as digital literacy and parental controls, to enhance online safety without compromising privacy. The discussion will incorporate youth perspectives and ethical considerations, ensuring that age verification measures are effective, inclusive, and do not lead to excessive surveillance or exclusion of vulnerable communities. Through a multi-stakeholder dialogue, this session will generate actionable recommendations to foster trust, accountability, and responsible innovation in online age assurance. The session outcomes will be shared with NRIs to support ongoing discussions and the exchange of best practices in future IGF forums.
This session will critically examine the challenges of balancing child protection, privacy rights, and digital inclusion in age verification. It will explore emerging age verification technologies, assessing their compliance with digital rights standards while identifying enforcement gaps and risks of regulatory overreach. Participants will evaluate how industry self-regulation can align with government initiatives and discuss alternative strategies, such as digital literacy and parental controls, to enhance online safety without compromising privacy. The discussion will incorporate youth perspectives and ethical considerations, ensuring that age verification measures are effective, inclusive, and do not lead to excessive surveillance or exclusion of vulnerable communities. Through a multi-stakeholder dialogue, this session will generate actionable recommendations to foster trust, accountability, and responsible innovation in online age assurance. The session outcomes will be shared with NRIs to support ongoing discussions and the exchange of best practices in future IGF forums.
Expected Outcomes
The session will produce a post-session summary document capturing key insights, challenges, and opportunities in age verification. This document will include concrete, actionable recommendations and challenges on balancing child protection, privacy, and digital rights in age verification. It will outline best practices shared during the session for transparency, accountability, n enforcement while emphasizing the importance of youth involvement, ensuring that age verification systems are co-designed with young users rather than imposed upon them.
To extend the impact of the discussion, the document will be shared with national and regional IGFs (NRIs), encouraging them to integrate the findings into their own debates as well as share their own best practices, to make the document more comprehensive. This will serve as a foundation for continued multi-stakeholder dialogue between government regulators, industry leaders, and civil society, ensuring that the conversation on age verification remains dynamic, inclusive, and responsive to emerging challenges.
Hybrid Format: The roundtable format ensures a highly interactive session, where both online and onsite participants—not just designated speakers—can actively contribute, share insights, and engage in real-time exchanges. The session will begin with a collaborative mapping of key challenges and opportunities in age verification, incorporating live polling to gather diverse perspectives from attendees. This will set the stage for a deeper discussion, where participants will explore policy dilemmas, enforcement gaps, and alternative approaches in a dynamic and inclusive format. Facilitated discussions will allow for quick idea exchanges, with breakout interventions ensuring that both remote and in-person voices are heard equally. By prioritizing audience-driven dialogue over static presentations, this session will generate actionable insights and concrete recommendations to shape responsible, effective, and rights-based age verification policies.