The Polish Council of Ministers has adopted a draft law on protecting minors from access to pornographic content on the internet. The new regulations will require providers of websites offering such content to implement effective age verification mechanisms for users. The aim of the legislation is to restrict children’s and teenagers’ access to material intended exclusively for adults, including situations in which minors may encounter such content accidentally.
The draft law, prepared by the Ministry of Digital Affairs, assumes that online services providing pornographic content will be required to introduce solutions allowing them to effectively verify whether a user is an adult. The law does not impose one specific technical model, but it indicates recommended age verification mechanisms. One of these is the use of the European Digital Identity Wallet, known as the EUDI Wallet.
Restricting children’s access to adult content
According to the Ministry of Digital Affairs, many websites containing pornographic material are currently not effectively protected against access by underage users. In practice, this means that children and teenagers can come across such content very easily, often without any real age control. The problem concerns both intentional searches for pornographic material 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 widely known for years but has remained largely unresolved. He stressed that if children are not allowed into places or services intended exclusively for adults in the physical world, the same principle should also apply online.
According to the authors of the draft law, 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 development of healthy relationships with peers. The new regulations are therefore intended primarily to serve a protective and preventive function.
Mandatory 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 effectively prevent minors from accessing this type of material.
Deputy Minister of Digital Affairs Michał Gramatyka emphasised that the new rules are necessary because the safeguards currently used by many websites are insufficient. Simple pop-up declarations 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 and require more effective solutions.
Importantly, however, the draft does not specify one mandatory technological tool. Service providers will be able to use different solutions, provided they meet the requirement of effective age verification. The law does, however, indicate recommended mechanisms designed to strike a balance between the protection of minors and the privacy of adult users.
European Digital Identity Wallet as a recommended solution
One of the recommended age verification mechanisms is the European Digital Identity Wallet, or EUDI Wallet. Under this solution, a user will be able to confirm a specific attribute, such as being over 18, without disclosing full personal data.
Deputy Minister of Digital Affairs Dariusz Standerski explained that online age verification must be both effective and anonymous. The use of the European Digital Identity Wallet is intended to confirm adulthood without providing the service with information about the user’s identity. The provider of adult content 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 websites the age confirmation was used on. 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.
Secure and anonymous age verification using this mechanism is planned 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 requirement. Under the new regulations, a register of domains breaching the obligations set out in the law will be created.
Domains that fail to implement effective age verification may be entered into the register by the President of the Office of Electronic Communications. Once a domain has been entered into the register, telecommunications operators will be required to block access to it. This means that users of telecommunications services in Poland will not be able to access websites included in the register.
The draft law also provides for the possibility of imposing financial penalties on entities that fail to comply with the new obligations. The sanctions are intended to strengthen the effectiveness of the regulations and encourage providers of adult content to implement genuine mechanisms for protecting minors.
New rules to regulate access to adult content
The adoption of the draft law by the Council of Ministers marks the start 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 environment a principle already known from the offline world: content intended exclusively for adults should not be accessible to children.
The new rules will be important for providers of pornographic websites, telecommunications operators and institutions responsible for supervising the digital market. The practical implementation of age verification mechanisms will be crucial. These mechanisms must, on the one hand, effectively restrict minors’ access to pornography and, on the other, avoid 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. According to 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.
