Unlike some other tech companies, Microsoft Corp. continues to keep the public informed as it takes more steps toward complying with the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation.

Its most recent step, announced last week by deputy general counsel Julie Brill, involved new parental consent requirements for accounts held by children in the EU. Brill, a former Federal Trade Commission commissioner, was hired in April 2017 to lead the company's global privacy and regulatory affairs group and to oversee its compliance with the new law.

In late March, Brill announced the Redmond, Washington-based company had named its first data protection officer, also required by the GDPR, which goes into effect May 25.

Microsoft has made clear announcements about its efforts to comply with the GDPR over the past year, while some other companies, like Google Inc. and Facebook Inc., have made more vague commitments about compliance.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and founder of Facebook, for example, has flip-flopped on how much of his company's compliance changes will apply to the United States and other countries outside the EU.

In an April 4 story in the U.K.'s The Guardian newspaper, Zuckerberg refused to commit to using the GDPR as a standard for the social network across the world.

But last week in testimony before U.S. Congress, Zuckerberg said “all the same controls” would be in available in the United States as well as the EU.

Google waited until late March to tell publishers that it would require them to take extra steps to obtain consent from users for the use of Google's ad services, as part of GDPR compliance. Google also wants to be “co-controller” of customer data along with the publishers, which angered some publishers, according to a report in Digiday.

It is not yet clear how Facebook and Google will deal with parental consent requirements under the new law, but Brill spelled out Microsoft's stance.

The GDPR requires parental consent in order for companies to process the personal data of children under the age of 16, but any EU member state can opt to set the age as low as 13. The United States and the U.K. already have laws setting the age at 13. In the United States, that is the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.

Brill's announcement said, “We have already started to roll out the necessary notifications to our users in many EU member states. We will complete the rollout by the end of April.”

When users sign into a Microsoft account, they will be prompted to provide their country and date of birth. Users who are younger than the age of consent for their country will be prompted for parental consent.

Brill said parents can do this either by contacting Microsoft customer service or by using a credit or debit card to pay a 50 cent charge that will be credited toward an existing Microsoft account. After a short grace period, a child's account will be blocked pending parental consent.

“While we appreciate these new GDPR requirements may cause some temporary inconveniences, verifying that an adult is giving their child permission to use an account is an important component of Microsoft's effort to help children explore technology safely,” Brill added.