PARIS — American tech heavyweight Google yesterday reiterated its opposition to verifying the age of a device’s user through the app stores built into operating systems, calling a proposal from Facebook and Instagram parent Meta “ineffective”.

Limiting access to age-restricted content online is a live issue in Europe, with France battling pornography sites over its newly-introduced requirement that they check users’ ages.

Paris is also one of several capitals pressing Brussels to introduce Europe-wide regulations cutting off access to social networks for under-15s over concerns including addiction, cyberbullying and hate speech.

Basing age verification on details from a device’s app store “would require the sharing of granular age band data with millions of developers... who don’t need it”, such as producers of uncontroversial apps like flashlights, Google wrote in a blog post.

“We have strong concerns about the risks this ‘solution’ would pose to children,” it added.