Age estimation from Persona to unlock Roblox’s Trusted Connections feature

Roblox has implemented a new system, called Trusted Connections, that integrates facial age estimation (FAE) provided by Persona.

“We’re investing in age estimation technology to help confirm users’ ages,” says a post from the hugely popular online game platform that allows users to create and share games.

“Trusted Connections can be unlocked through age estimation, and users who are connected through Trusted Connections can communicate more freely in chat and voice with people they know and trust. This additional freedom to chat more openly with trusted connections reduces the incentive for teens to move interactions off platform, where they may be exposed to greater risk.”

Roblox has made headlines for what digital behavior experts call “a troubling disconnect between Roblox’s child-friendly appearance and the reality of what children experience on the platform.” The company responded with additional parental controls, and has now spun those measures into Trusted Connections.

“Users 13 to 17 who have their age confirmed can add each other as a Trusted Connection. In addition, teens (13 to 17) can only add users 18+ who they know in real life as Trusted Connections, through a QR scan or Contact Importer.”

Persona’s age assurance, which Reddit also recently integrated, is a prerequisite for accessing Trusted Connections. The system uses a video selfie matched against Persona’s datasets to estimate age. Those determined to be under 13, or those whose age the system is unable to estimate “with high confidence,” will not have access to the program.

Roblox says that, “looking ahead, we envision using age estimation platform-wide to support user access to age-appropriate features and content. Users always have a choice: age estimation is optional, and those over 13 can still verify with an ID and, in the future, verified parental consent.”

Persona launched its facial age estimation in partnership with Paravision in late-2023.

NetChoice mad at Fifth Circuit court over Mississippi age check law

While platforms like Roblox see the value in age assurance, the social media industry at large continues to push against legislation that requires it. So far, challenges by industry lobby group NetChoice (of which Reddit is a member, alongside Meta, Amazon, X and YouTube) have seen significant success in U.S. courts. But a new release strikes a sulky tone in decrying a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, granting the State of Mississippi’s request to allow HB 1126, which includes age verification provisions.

“We are very disappointed in the Fifth Circuit’s decision to let Mississippi’s censorship law go into effect,” says Paul Taske, co-director of the NetChoice Litigation Center. “We are considering all available options. NetChoice will continue to fight against this egregious infringement on access to fully protected speech online. Parents – not the government – should determine what is right for their families.”

Arguing that the so-called “Walker Montgomery Protecting Children Online Act” violates the First Amendment, NetChoice makes the melodramatic claim that “HB 1126 usurps the parental role and seizes it for the State.”

It swings even harder with the assertion that “a vast amount of speech could be unintentionally censored online under the vague requirements of the government under the law, including: The U.S. Declaration of Independence, Sherlock Holmes, The Goonies, the National Treasure movie series featuring Nicholas Cage, Taylor Swift’s Tortured Poets Department album and much more.”

Few parents, however, are likely to be as concerned about their kid being a Swiftie as they are about, for instance, the possibility that social media is ruining their ability to exist as a person in physical space. (The jury remains out on the National Treasure films, and Nicolas Cage in general.)

Expect NetChoice to escalate indefinitely, given the heft of those who back it.

New America has recommendations for privacy preserving age assurance

One of the buzziest topics in age verification is zero knowledge proofs, or ZKPs. Liberal U.S. thinktank New America has a lengthy look at some of the legal concerns that are raised around age assurance in a new brief, and offers four “considerations for building a digital ecosystem that supports privacy-preserving age verification” and four recommendations for industry and policymakers.

“Delineate the appropriate instances for strict age verification,” it says. “Determine the roles of different entities in the age verification process and how these entities establish trust. Coordinate industry action through shared standards and protocols. Protect user privacy, security, and rights throughout implementations.”

The recommendations are as follows:

“As a matter of policy, age verification requirements should be narrowly tailored to limit burdens on freedom of expression and access to protected content. Wherever applied, technical solutions for age verification should use best-in-class privacy-preserving techniques. When absolutely required, age verification mandates should be applied in the least restrictive and most tailored manner – at the service level. Age verification solutions and implementations should prioritize user choice and data security.”

Of note is the recommendation to place age verification or age estimation measures at the service level – the scenario that NetChoice and the Free Speech Coalition continue to fight in courts. Yet unlike those entities, New America’s critique reads more like what age assurance providers will tell you: there’s no silver bullet, and it’s not perfect yet.

“While age verification seems like a simple solution, trying to determine who is and is not a child online can pose both technical and political challenges, endangering user rights, privacy, and security,” says the brief. “As it stands, no currently implemented age assurance solution can provide the necessary balance between reliable accuracy and user privacy.”

It cites a 2022 analysis by the French Commission on Information Technology and Liberties (CNIL), which tested six methods and found that none could adequately satisfy “sufficiently reliable verification, complete coverage of the population, and respect for the protection of individuals’ data and privacy and their security.”

The field has widened considerably since 2022, however, and the technology has improved. New America endorses ZKPs as part of the potential solution, once again pointing to the CNIL study, specifically a proof-of-concept that “relied on two cryptographic techniques to protect user anonymity: group signatures and zero-knowledge proofs.”

“The group signature allows a user to authenticate data without disclosing their identity, and zero-knowledge proofs provide a method for verifying a user’s shared data without disclosing any information beyond whether or not the data is valid. By combining these two concepts with third-party facilitators, the researchers created a double blind system where only a user’s age is shared.”

The piece, however, errs in stating that “the digital ecosystem needed to support this process does not fully exist yet,” which runs counter to preliminary findings from the Australian Government’s Age Assurance Technology Trial.

Ultimately, New America is no fan of age assurance in general. “ZKPs can make data sharing safer, and they should be a prerequisite for strict age verification that requires hard identifiers. However, age verification places burdens on user access and freedom of expression – and its use across the web should be limited.”

In keeping, it has a low opinion on the recent ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court upholding Texas’ right to impose age verification requirements on adult content sites. The authors take issue with a statement in the ruling that “adults have no First Amendment right to avoid age verification.”

“That language creates confusion, as it seems to suggest that the court is not discouraging age verification in contexts broader than age-gating sexually explicit content. Some states are likely to test the boundaries where age verification is permissible, as already seen with states advocating for social media and app store age verification. While lower courts have blocked some of these laws, it is unclear how the new Supreme Court decision will impact final rulings or potential appeals.”

Article Topics

age verification  |  biometric age estimation  |  biometrics  |  face biometrics  |  facial age estimation (FAE)  |  gaming  |  Netchoice  |  Persona  |  Roblox