Mr. Seamus Carroll:

Article 8 is about the offering of information society services to individuals up to the age of 17 years. When the draft regulation left the JHA Council, the age threshold was under 13 years in order that in the case of children up to the age of 12, parental consent would be required or at least the person offering the information society services would have to make the best effort to obtain parental consent for them. When it went to the European Parliament, the age threshold was increased to 17 years. That means that under the law those aged up to 16 years require parental consent, but there is a provision for member states to reduce it to 13.