Age assurance from Big Tech potential non-factor in Australian trial

The Age Assurance Technology Trial has released the minutes from its stakeholder advisory board meeting. The document provides an update on the trial, which it says has attracted “a diverse range of solutions,” including different technological approaches, companies of various sizes, and strong representation from Australian providers, alongside major international players.

There are now 53 firms participating in the age assurance trial. CitizenCard has joined, while three vendors withdrew: Australia’s Blue Biometrics cites a lack of resources, Nuggets withdrew for unspecified reasons, and Fujitsu decided to focus its efforts on in-store age assurance, rather than online methods.

According to the minutes, “while 32 out of 53 vendors have submitted their practice statements, some larger companies face internal approval delays.” Some of the bigger names in the mix include Google and Mastercard.

The minutes show that “Google is considering submitting an API that would allow users to store an age credential in their Google Wallet and share it with apps and websites when needed.” However, there is some confusion over how useful an adult-oriented product like Google Wallet would be for age assurance purposes.

Apple, meanwhile, has been unresponsive, “despite multiple outreach attempts” by the trial.

Tony Allen of the Age Check Certification Scheme (ACCS), which is overseeing the trial, “stressed that once vendors sign the participation agreement, they cannot withdraw from the trial, and their results will be publicly reported, regardless of outcome.”

The minutes lay out the trial’s plan to conduct school-based testing, how to address safeguarding concerns in doing so, and other forthcoming advocacy actions.

YouTube should be excluded from social media ban: YouTube

YouTube’s exclusion from Australia’s social media ban for those under 16 may have been engineered behind closed doors, according to Australia’s Financial Review.

“Confidential emails obtained through a freedom of information request reveal how the Google-owned company justified the carve-out it received last November from the controversial ban that comes with threats of $50 million penalties for other companies that fail to keep users under 16 off their platforms,” says the piece.

Newly revealed Google emails to a government task force argue that YouTube operates in “a fundamentally different way from social media” because “unlike traditional social media services, we don’t connect users to content through their social network. Instead we rank content based on age appropriateness, relevance and authoritativeness.”

YouTube’s exemption from the under-16 ban enraged other social platforms, which accused Australia of giving it a sweetheart deal. As the government struggles to justify its exemption with specific reasoning, those allegations now have more bite.

Article Topics

Age Assurance Technology Trial  |  Age Check Certification Scheme (ACCS)  |  age verification  |  Apple  |  Australia age verification  |  AVPA  |  biometrics  |  digital wallets  |  Google Wallet