MEP Nina Carberry, a Member of the European Parliament’s Intergroup on Children’s Rights, is leading efforts to introduce amendments to ensure mandatory age verification to protect minors online. She is also calling on the EU to take steps to ban generative AI tools, such as ‘nudifiers’ and other tools capable of producing synthetic child sexual abuse material.

Carberry, who is working on a European Parliament Report on enhancing the protection of minors in the digital sphere, is putting pressure on the European Commission to swiftly implement stringent EU-wide age verification tools to prevent children from accessing age inappropriate content.

“The EU must begin by properly enforcing the Digital Services Act (DSA), which already bans targeted ads based on minor’s personal data and sets stronger privacy settings. However, existing rules alone are not enough to keep pace with current trends, particularly Artificial Intelligence (AI) models capable of creating synthetic child sexual abuse material.

“I am also supporting amendments looking at how video games that feature chat boxes enabling user-on-user communication pose a major risk for children and make them vulnerable to be coerced into sharing personal data”, Carberry added.

The Fine Gael MEP recently met with Henna Virkkunen, European Commission Vice President in charge of tech policy, to discuss the launch of a new age verification app that will improve online safety for minors.

The EU is expected to launch a pilot app later this month that will trial stronger measures for verifying users on social media sites and other online platforms, aiming to limit access to age-inappropriate content.

The report on the protection of minors online is likely to be voted on during the plenary session in November 2025.