GOSRN position statement calls for global coherence on age assurance regulation

A newly released position statement from the Global Online Safety Regulators Network (GOSRN) supports “a common, principles-based and privacy-preserving international approach to age assurance.” The organization, whose members include regulators from France, Australia, the UK, Ireland, South Korea, Slovakia, Fiji and the Netherlands, wants to achieve “greater international coherence in the applicable rules for age assurance,” as the issue gains prominence among lawmakers worldwide.

“Protection of children and age-appropriate design are a shared responsibility of online service providers, regulators, policymakers, civil society organisations, parents, and the broader public,” the statement says. “To ensure children are protected, it is important for regulators to set out our common approach and commitment to age assurance and non-compliant companies are pursued with dissuasive sanctions.”

The common approach that the network identifies lists five key principles to which age assurance systems should adhere. They should be accurate, although a statistical threshold is not specified. Systems should be robust in real-life deployments and reliable, meaning reproducible and derived from trustworthy evidence. Age assurance should be proportionate, “aligned with the scale and impact of the issue age assurance is being introduced to mitigate.” They should be fair and inclusive, designed to minimize bias. And they should be non-intrusive: “intuitive, easy to use, and user-friendly.”

Coherence, then, means proof of age technology that prioritizes accessibility and interoperability, and that adheres to all applicable data protection laws upholding users’ rights to privacy and expression. It also means enforcing the rules as they are set out.

A release from Ofcom, which is a member of GOSRN, notes the UK regulator’s efforts to date on that front. “We are currently monitoring services’ compliance and have opened investigations into 83 adult sites as part of our enforcement programme,” it says, noting a recent million-pound fine slapped on adult service provider AVS for “failing to have highly effective age checks in place.”

In addition to the position statement, the Global Online Safety Regulators Network is continuing work on the age assurance file, including coordination among data protection authorities, and public-facing communication to enhance awareness and understanding of age assurance. “As the only existing global network for online safety regulators, we recognise the value of clearly communicating our aims, objectives, and regulatory expectations,” it says.

In addition to the aforementioned regulatory bodies, GOSRN also includes more than 20 observer organizations, representing government agencies and nonprofit organizations from across the globe.

France to accelerate age assurance law through Parliament: Macron

In France, whose regulator Arcom is also a GOSRN member, President Emmanuel Macron is accelerating age check legislation on social media.

A report from BFMTV says Macron has asked the government to “initiate the accelerated procedure” to allow for implementation by September 2026. In a Parliamentary context, that means the bill may be read just once in each chamber instead of the standard two times. The first debate is scheduled for this coming Monday.

France has been at the vanguard of online safety laws. The country was among the first to tangle with major porn providers over age verification laws for adult content sites. It is associated with the double-blind method, which preserves anonymity across age check transactions. And Macron has issued strong words in justifying his agenda: “This is a very clear message: the brains of our children and teenagers are not for sale. Their emotions are not for sale, nor are they to be manipulated, whether by American platforms or by Chinese algorithms.”

Canada looks to increase legal age for social media to 14

Canadian officials are drafting a plan to restrict social media to those 14 and older, according to The Globe and Mail. That’s only a minor divergence from current law, which prohibits kids under 13 from having social media accounts.

The draft is set to be included in the government’s forthcoming online harms bill, which follows a bill, C-63, that died in Parliament ahead of the most recent federal election. Its replacement is motivated in part by new data released by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, which shows an upward trend in online violence primarily targeting girls on social media.

Sources tell the Globe that there is ongoing discussion in Ottawa about the possibility of creating a new regulatory body to enforce the law. “One option is for a single commission with powers to impose major fines on social-media companies that fail to comply with the bill.”

The piece quotes Charlotte Moore Hepburn, a pediatrician and medical director for the Child Health Policy Accelerator at Sick Kids hospital in Toronto, who emphasizes the need for proper oversight.

“The government needs a comprehensive strategy that is multipronged in its approach, and it cannot achieve that without an independent regulator,” she says.

Article Topics

age verification  |  biometric age estimation  |  Canada  |  children  |  France  |  Global Online Safety Regulators Network (GOSRN)  |  interoperability  |  legislation  |  social media