The Polish Council of Ministers has adopted a draft law on protecting minors from access to pornographic content on the internet. The new regulations are intended to require providers of websites offering this type of material to use effective age verification mechanisms. The aim of the legislation is to restrict children’s and teenagers’ access to content intended exclusively for adults, including in situations where they may come across such material accidentally.
The draft law, prepared by the Ministry of Digital Affairs, provides that websites offering pornographic content will have to implement solutions that make it possible to effectively check whether a user is an adult. The law does not impose one specific technical model, but it does indicate recommended age verification mechanisms. One of them is the use of the European Digital Identity Wallet, known as the EUDI Wallet.
Restricting Children’s Access to Adult Content
As the Ministry of Digital Affairs emphasises, many websites containing pornographic content are currently not effectively protected against access by minors. In practice, this means that children and teenagers can encounter such material very easily, often without any genuine age control. The problem concerns both intentional searches for pornographic content and accidental exposure while using the internet.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Affairs Krzysztof Gawkowski said that the state must respond to a problem that has been known for years but has not been effectively solved. As he noted, if children do not have access in the physical world to places and services intended exclusively for adults, a similar principle should also apply online.
According to the authors of the draft, unrestricted access by minors to pornography may have negative consequences for their development. The press release points, among other things, to the risk of addiction, reduced concentration and motivation to learn, as well as disturbances in the formation of healthy relationships with peers. The new regulations are therefore intended primarily to serve a protective and preventive function.
Obligation to Use Effective Age Verification
Under the proposed regulations, providers of online services through which pornographic content is made available will be required to use age verification mechanisms. Their purpose will be to prevent minors from accessing this type of material.
Deputy Minister of Digital Affairs Michał Gramatyka stressed that the new rules are necessary because the safeguards currently used by many websites are insufficient. Simple prompts requiring users to click a button confirming that they are adults do not provide real protection for children. The proposed law is intended to change this situation and force the use of more effective solutions.
Importantly, however, the draft does not specify one mandatory technological tool. Website providers will be able to use different solutions, provided that they meet the requirement of effective age verification. The law does, however, indicate recommended mechanisms designed to strike a balance between protecting minors and safeguarding the privacy of adult users.
European Digital Identity Wallet as a Recommended Solution
One of the recommended age verification mechanisms is to be the European Digital Identity Wallet, or EUDI Wallet. Under this solution, users will be able to confirm a specific attribute, such as the fact that they are over 18, without disclosing their full personal data.
Deputy Minister of Digital Affairs Dariusz Standerski explained that online age verification should be both effective and anonymous. The use of the European Digital Identity Wallet is intended to make it possible to confirm adulthood without providing the website with information about the user’s identity. The content provider will receive only confirmation that the person meets the age requirement.
At the same time, the public entity issuing the wallet will not receive information about which online services used the age confirmation. According to the Ministry of Digital Affairs, this is intended to protect the privacy of adult users and reduce the risk of creating a record of activity related to visits to specific websites.
Safe and anonymous age verification using such a mechanism is expected to be launched by the end of 2026.
Domain Register and Access Blocking
The draft law also provides for sanctions against entities that fail to comply with the age verification obligation. Under the new regulations, a register of domains violating the statutory requirements is to be created.
Domains that do not implement effective age verification may be entered into the register by the President of the Office of Electronic Communications. Once such an entry is made, telecommunications operators will be required to block access to the listed domains. This means that users of telecommunications services in Poland will not be able to access websites included in the register.
The draft also provides for the possibility of imposing financial penalties on entities that fail to meet the new obligations. The sanctions are intended to increase the effectiveness of the regulations and encourage providers of adult content to introduce real mechanisms for protecting minors.
New Rules Are Intended to Regulate Access to Adult Content
The adoption of the draft by the Council of Ministers marks the beginning of the next stage of legislative work. The regulation is intended to introduce a systemic solution to a problem that has so far largely remained outside effective control. The state wants to transfer to the digital world a principle already known from offline reality: content intended exclusively for adults should not be available to children.
The new regulations will be important not only for providers of pornographic websites, but also for telecommunications operators and institutions responsible for supervising the digital market. The practical implementation of age verification mechanisms will be crucial. On the one hand, they must effectively restrict minors’ access to pornography; on the other, they must not lead to excessive collection of data about adult users.
The draft law forms part of a broader debate on children’s safety online, the responsibility of digital platforms and the protection of user privacy. In the view of the Ministry of Digital Affairs, the regulation is a response to the real risks associated with children’s and teenagers’ easy access to pornographic content and an attempt to create a safer digital environment.
Source: managerplus.pl
