FTC workshop shows age assurance sector positioned to support legislative trend in US

The Federal Trade Commission this week played host to various experts and stakeholders in the age assurance ecosystem, at a workshop dedicated to discussion and debate about online safety and privacy laws, regulations, age check technology and the eternal quest to protect kids online.

In his opening statements, FTC Chair Andrew N. Ferguson defines the event, specifically, as a way to get “better insight into the interplay between age verification and COPPA,” the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. Enacted in 2000, COPPA remains the foundational legislation for kids’ online safety. But the realities of today’s technological landscape do not always fit easily into its framework.

Declaring today’s internet to be more like Las Vegas than Little House on the Prairie, Ferguson sets the stage in asserting the need for robust age assurance technologies, and the legislative muscle to make them effective in keeping kids away from adult content.

Approaches continue to evolve as reusables take spotlight

Speakers in the lineup include familiar names from the biometrics and digital identity industry. A survey of age verification tools features Iain Corby, executive director of the Age Verification Providers Association (AVPA) and Rick Song, CEO of biometric age assurance provider Persona, alongside Sarah Scheffler, an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s CyLab, and Jim Siegl, a senior fellow with the Future of Privacy Forum (FPF).

Corby’s tour of the currently available options for highly effective, privacy preserving age assurance demonstrates the pace at which innovation in the sector continues to advance. The umbrella category of age assurance has evolved from ID-based age verification and even facial age estimation to include a new generation of technologies. Corby demonstrates emergent models like Needemand’s age estimation method based on hand gestures, or algorithmic age inference that draws on existing documentation or user-generated content and behavior.

He also highlights the momentum behind reusable age check systems, exemplified by the ongoing success of k-ID’s OpenAge initiative (which Persona just joined), and the euCONSENT-led AgeAware project. There are clear benefits to a tokenized or key-based age check system that can repurpose a single verification for use across channels, and discussion at the workshop suggests a convergence between biometric age checks, zero knowledge proofs and the so-called French double blind model, wherein a platform knows nothing about a user except that they are allowed in, and the age assurance provider has no way to know which sites a user is visiting.

‘Age estimation has become the dominant form’

Rick Song, CEO of Persona, offers some insights on what seems to be working for users, and what’s a harder sell. Song says “facial age estimation has become the most dominant form” of age assurance, in large part because of the convenience. In Persona’s tripartite scheme, usability is a load-bearing pillar, alongside coverage (the tech should be applicable in as many places as possible) and assurance (there needs to be justifiable confidence that it is accurate).

On the flip side, he suggests that most people are generally less comfortable with models that require an email address. “Email feels like a breach,” he says, whereas a biometric is faster and less invasive. Much discussion addresses the need to balance accuracy and effectiveness with pressing concerns around privacy.

Everyone in attendance, however, is in agreement about at least three things. One, measures to regulate and restrict youth access to adult online content are necessary. Two, the self declaration model does not work for reliable age assurance, and the existing private age check sector will play a major role in replacing it with tools that work, but also preserve privacy. Three, data collection and misuse is a significant and urgent concern, and tools should be designed and deployed with privacy as a priority.

More coverage from FTC Age Verification Workshop

FTC workshop shows age assurance sector positioned to support legislative trend in US

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Age assurance policy landscape sees different camps adopt different positions

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Article Topics

age verification  |  AVPA  |  biometric age estimation  |  biometrics  |  facial age estimation (FAE)  |  FTC  |  legislation  |  Persona  |  reusable digital ID  |  United States