Italy's Garante backs age checks under proposed EU Kids Act but calls for minimal data collection

Pasquale Stanzione, president of Italy’s data protection authority (Garante), gave evidence on 28 October 2026 to the XIV Committee of the Chamber of Deputies on the proposed EU Kids Act regulation. He welcomed age verification for minors using social media. He added that it should collect only the information strictly necessary, and that parental control tools must also respect children’s privacy.

The Garante asked legislators for better coordination with existing rules and stronger confidentiality safeguards for minors. Stanzione supported the proposal’s measures against addictive platform design, profiling and potentially harmful interactions. In his view these include chatbots that simulate personal relationships.

He also repeated earlier requests to the Italian legislator. These were graduated independent internet access, with risk-based thresholds and an initial phase of parental supervision, and attention to the risks of emotional dependency on empathy-simulating chatbots.