Mr. Seamus Carroll:

The difficulty is that the services are being offered online. The obligation under Article 8 of the regulation is that the controller shall make reasonable efforts to verify in such cases that consent is given or authorised by the holder of parental responsibility taking into consideration the available technology. The threshold is that the offerer of the information society services must make reasonable efforts. There is similar legislation in place in the United States - the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act 1998. The European provision draws inspiration from the American legislation, but it is a threshold of "reasonable efforts" because, clearly, at such a distance, it is difficult for the offerer of the information society services to be certain about the age of the child.