Brazil's Digital ECA law mandates age verification for minors

The implementation of the Digital ECA (Law No. 15.211/2025) has placed age verification at the center of child and adolescent protection in digital environments. The legislation requires reliable age verification mechanisms for platforms, apps, and games to ensure the best interests of minors under 18.

This mandate presents a technical challenge regarding privacy. There is a risk that requiring high levels of confidence in age verification could lead to the excessive collection of sensitive data, such as identity documents, facial images, and biometric data, potentially creating new targets for fraud and surveillance. To mitigate this, the National Data Protection Authority (ANPD) is exploring methods to separate age verification from full identity disclosure, using proportional approaches like self-declaration or age signals from operating systems.