What law causes Web sites to prohibit EU users under 16 years old?
<p>Many Web sites, including Stack Exchange, do not allow users under 16 years old from the European Union. This includes sites that do not have (or at least are not intended to have) content considered inappropriate for children. American sites often do this at age 13 because it is so difficult to comply with COPPA; what EU law causes this?</p>

<p>It's probably due to GDPR. You will see that around 2018-05-25 when GDPR came into force, many US-based websites changed their terms of service to increase the age requirement from 13 (age below which the U.S. COPPA law applies) to 16 for European users.</p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180502003840/https://stackexchange.com/legal" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here are Stack Exchange's terms of service from 2018-05-02</a>, mentioning 13 years, and <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180503011439/https://stackexchange.com/legal" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here is the version one day later</a> mentioning 16 years.</p>
<p>The GPDR allows companies to process personal data under a variety of legal bases, such as “legitimate interest”, “necessary for performing a contract”, or “consent”. But children are not able to give consent in this context. If a website wants consent from a child for some data processing, Art 8 GDPR requires the service to make “reasonable efforts” to check with the parents first. This reasonable effort is more effort than just banning children from using the services.</p>
<p>The GDPR itself does not define exactly when someone is a child for these purposes – it lets individual EU member states define the exact age limit, which may be anything between 13 and 16 years. Thus, websites that definitely do not want to have to comply with Art 8 GDPR take the upper bound of that limit and mention in their terms of service that the service is only intended for persons aged 16 or older.</p>
<p>The text of Art 8 GDPR is:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>(1) Where point (a) of Article 6(1) applies, in relation to the offer of information society services directly to a child, the processing of the personal data of a child shall be lawful where the child is at least 16 years old. Where the child is below the age of 16 years, such processing shall be lawful only if and to the extent that consent is given or authorised by the holder of parental responsibility over the child.
Member States may provide by law for a lower age for those purposes provided that such lower age is not below 13 years.</p>
<p>(2) The controller shall make reasonable efforts to verify in such cases that consent is given or authorised by the holder of parental responsibility over the child, taking into consideration available technology.</p>
<p>(3) Paragraph 1 shall not affect the general contract law of Member States such as the rules on the validity, formation or effect of a contract in relation to a child.</p>
</blockquote>

<p><a href="/questions/tagged/germany" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;germany&#39;" aria-label="show questions tagged &#39;germany&#39;" rel="tag" aria-labelledby="germany-container">germany</a></p>
<p>There are different laws in play here, depending on the services offered by a web page. Probably the most important one is the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protection_of_Young_Persons_Act_(Germany)" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Protection of Young Persons Act</a> (Jugendschutzgesetz, JuSchG). This German law prohibits persons under a certain age to:</p>
<ul>
<li>Enter a game hall</li>
<li>Get into a night club</li>
<li>Buy beer or tobacco</li>
<li>etc.</li>
</ul>
<p>Web pages offering any of these services (e.g. online casinos) or advertising age-restricted products (such as tobacco) must therefore make sure they are not visited by minors. The same law also requires that games and movies must only be presented according to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freiwillige_Selbstkontrolle_der_Filmwirtschaft" rel="nofollow noreferrer">FSK</a> tag. Games containing serious violence cannot be legaly bought in Germany by minors, this includes online platforms such as Steam.</p>

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