Ireland to make age checks through government app mandatory for social media

Ireland will run age assurance for age-restricted online content through a government-developed wallet app, according to an interview with Communications Minister Patrick O’Donovan published in Extra.ie.

The comments follow a previously stated intention to launch a digital wallet aligned with the EUDI Wallet project, based on Ireland’s existing MyGovID online authentication system, under the Online Safety Code. The wallet will hold digital identity credentials such as a mobile driver’s license (mDL).

The plan is unprecedented among governments legislating online safety, in that it makes downloading the app, designed by the Government’s chief information officer, mandatory for age assurance. Per the Extra report, “if adults refuse to download the digital wallet, they will no longer be able to access their existing social media accounts.”

“Mr. O’Donovan said the process of downloading the app might inconvenience someone for ‘three or four minutes’ but this was a small ask in order to protect children online.” O’Donovan has called the harmful effects of social media and other online content on youth a “severe public health issue.”

In an attempt to stay abreast of global developments in age assurance law, Irish regulator Coimisiún na Meán has worked closely with both the EU and Ofcom to align regulatory frameworks, and signed a formal Memorandum of Understanding with Australia’s eSafety Commissioner. Its commitment to regulation is no surprise, although the government-only model pushes at the limits of Irish privacy law.

The plan has already prompted a bilious response from Elon Musk, who took to his social-and-nudification platform to allege that what Irish leaders “actually want is to imprison and bankrupt those they disagree with.” According to Wikipedia, Musk has been the wealthiest person in the world since 2021; as of December 2025, Forbes estimates his net worth to be around 779 billion dollars.

‘There aren’t too many children sitting up at the bar counter’

Ireland is set to assume the EU presidency in July 2026, and has put child online safety at the center of its platform. Its legislation imposing age assurance requirements on social media platforms and pornography streaming sites will roll out in tandem.

Sites containing adults-only material will be on a government-mandated “schedule” of services requiring age verification.

Concerns about age assurance technology persist among privacy rights activists. Since age verification and facial age estimation often involves the processing of biometrics, the potential for sensitive data to be exposed is high. And requiring the process to run through a government product is likely to agitate fears about mass surveillance.

O’Donovan says the risk to Ireland’s youth is higher.

“I think there is no other right that trumps the right of a child to be protected and no amount of convincing me that data protection is more important than child protection is ever going to win out,” he says. “You don’t allow people access to something which is clearly a public health risk in an unregulated fashion as a child. There aren’t too many children sitting up at the bar counter, sucking their doodie and sipping their martinis.”

He also dismisses the notion that the government might use the wallet to track citizens’ activities, saying that the government is much too busy to care. “I’m not really interested in whether or not you’re on the Ryanair website or whether you’re on the Aer Lingus website,” he says.

Meta responds well to proposal, but not because it’s ethical

In keeping with O’Donovan’s stated intent to be tough on child safety, the new laws will come with “significant fines” for noncompliance, which may or may not apply to company executives personally. Regulator Coimisiún na Meán, he says, issues fines that are “not to be sneezed at.”

He is, however, naive in his optimism that companies will want to comply because of ethics, and his hope that they’ll just decide to put in robust age verification systems on their own.

“At the end of the day, if the companies have a social conscience and are interested in the protection of children online, I don’t see why anybody who wouldn’t be trading in Ireland, not just domiciled in Ireland, wouldn’t adopt the format that we’re proposing,” he says. “Some of them do have, you know, something bordering on a social conscience, which is to be welcomed. But ­others don’t.”

Ireland has become a corporate home for many large U.S. companies specifically because it offers them a way to pay minimal tax. Which is to say, they are in Ireland in the first place because they lack the social conscience to pay the tax rate as set by the government in their home country. As to whether they are interested in the protection of children online, one could ask Grok, the X LLM chatbot that will undress minors on command (for a fee).

Given Ireland’s population, the law may be of less consequence to social media platforms’ user base than similar legislation in the UK. But Big Tech will not be happy to see its tax haven take a stronger regulatory posture in any respect.

Ironically, a third-party age assurance process that verifies users before they get to the app level is exactly what Meta has lobbied for. Indeed, O’Donovan says Mark Zuckerberg’s social goliath has responded warmly to his proposals. “I had a really positive meeting with Meta. I’d like to see the others either come in and meet me and outline what it is that they would like to see included, and how they would like to see it worked, and be unequivocal in their support as well. We’re obviously anxious to try and get as many of the social media companies as possible to buy into this and buy into the concept of age verification.”

Article Topics

age verification  |  Coimisiún na Meán (CnM)  |  digital wallets  |  Ireland  |  Online Safety Code  |  social media