According to Golem, the rules governing Germany's EUDI wallet are being revised so that 13-year-olds can obtain an online ID. The wallet is Germany's implementation of the EU Digital Identity Wallet mandated by the eIDAS 2.0 regulation, which member states must offer their citizens: an app for identifying yourself to public bodies and private services without handing over full identity documents each time.
Extending it to 13-year-olds is a bigger decision than it looks. A digital identity document is not a login; it is a credential that can attest age, name and address — and, in the EU design, can disclose only a subset of attributes (selective disclosure), so that someone can prove they are over 18 without revealing a date of birth. Whether a 13-year-old's wallet is restricted in what it may assert, whether guardians must consent, and how the state prevents a school-age credential from becoming a tracking identifier are precisely the questions that dominated Germany's earlier Bundestag hearing on the wallet, where experts raised privacy and security concerns.
There is a legitimate case for the change: minors already carry chip-based ID cards in many EU states, and online age verification is becoming mandatory for social platforms and age-restricted goods. A wallet that answers 'over 13' without revealing a birth date is arguably more private than emailing a scan of an ID card.
The counter-case is about defaults. If a wallet becomes the normal way to prove age, the population required to use it grows — and so does the value of any centralised attribute service, including for profiling, even where selective disclosure is technically available.
Details such as the timetable and the exact safeguards are still being worked out; the reported revision of the rules is the basis here.
