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On 24 September 2024, the Italian Communications Authority (AGCOM) approved the regulatory framework governing technical and procedural methods for verifying users' age (age assurance, or age verification), as outlined in Article 13-bis of Decree-Law No. 123 of 15 September 2023, converted with amendments by Law No. 159 of 13 November 2023 (the so-called Decreto Caivano). More specifically, Article 13-bis of the Decreto Caivano (Provisions for Age Verification for Access to Pornographic Websites) introduced a prohibition in Italian law on minors accessing pornographic content, as such content...

The report entitled "The Metaverse and its Impact on Human Rights, the Rule of Law, and Democracy", jointly developed by the Council of Europe and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Standards Association under the Council of Europe Digital Partnership and launched at the EuroDIG (European Dialogue on Internet Governance) Conference last June, is now publicly available for download. The report examines how the metaverse could reshape our societies and the associated benefits, risks and challenges. Drawing on insights from over 50 international experts,...

In April 2024, the European Commission opened proceedings against TikTok (a designated Very Large Online Platform) for its new “Reward Program”, which allows users to earn points which can be exchanged for rewards, including Amazon vouchers, gift cards via PayPal or TikTok's coin currency. The Commission was particularly concerned by the impact of such functionality on minors. According to the latter, the programme could infringe provisions of the Digital Services Act (DSA) on the diligent assessment of risks (particularly in relation to the addictive effect of the programme) and...

In the Board meeting of 24 July 2024, the Italian Communication Authority (Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni – “AGCOM”) approved the Regulations laying down the procedural rules for the certification of out-of-court dispute resolution bodies between online platform providers and service recipients (Resolution No. 282/24/CONS) and for the issuance of the qualification as trusted flaggers (Resolution No. 283/24/CONS) under, respectively, Articles 21 and 22 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 (“DSA”). The Regulations, which will enter into force on 15 September...

In April 2024, on the basis of the notification obligations provided for in Directive (EU) 2015/1535, the German Länder, as the competent legislative body, notified the European Commission of a draft amendment to the Jugendmedienschutz-Staatsvertrag (State Treaty on the Protection of Minors in the Media – JMStV). However, in its opinion of 1 July 2024, the European Commission was critical of the draft. Although it shared the objective of providing children and young people with safe access to online content and protecting them from harmful content, the Commission considered that, as...