G7 backs privacy-preserving age assurance as Japan proposes social media access limits

Japan is considering new restrictions on minors’ access to social media while stopping short of blanket age bans.

While countries such as Australia, Indonesia and Malaysia have moved toward biometric-backed age-gating measures for social media access, Japan is pursuing a more flexible model.

The draft measures propose working with relevant parties such as telco operators to establish “methods of age verification based on feasible technologies and systems,” reports The Japan Times. Earlier, it was reported that Japan was considering age-based content filtering by default.

If the proposals are adopted, it could mean different age limits for different platforms and each platform implementing its own age verification methods. Currently, social media age verification is only based on self-reporting, making it easy to bypass.

Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said a broad age restriction would be difficult to implement as social media was too embedded as a communications tool in its society, with each platform having its unique functions. Support among both parents and under-25s in Japan for outright bans on social media for under-16s is relatively low, a report found.

The new proposals include asking platform operators to evaluate the risks of their services and publish the findings of the assessments. Another measure is implementing parental controls and having them turned on as the default setting for minors’ accounts. The draft emphasizes providing better support to improve the technology literacy of parents and teachers.

The proposals will accept public comment before they are finalized this summer. Other ministries will then suggest amendments, additions or counter arguments. It could be some time before they become law, but the communications ministry hopes to have finalized policy by the year’s end.

Meanwhile, the G7 group of developed countries, which includes Japan, have agreed to a landmark set of principles for safeguarding minors online.

G7 backs interoperable, privacy-preserving age assurance

Common principles intended to establish a safer and more secure online environment for children have been agreed to by the G7. The U.S., UK, Japan, France, Germany, Canada and Italy have adopted seven Common Principles, with the European Union another adopter and an advocate.

In a statement from the EU Commission, it said the principles “reflect the EU’s leadership in fostering collective action to create a safer digital world for children and demonstrate this goal is shared by our likeminded partners.”

Effective age assurance is one of the agreement’s central principles. Principle one calls for robust, reliable, privacy-preserving and interoperable age assurance solutions as part of facilitating an “age-appropriate digital experience” for minors. The principle explicitly includes protecting freedom of expression and privacy, so recommends parental consent, among others, for age assurance.

The seven principles call for a comprehensive “safety-by-design” framework for protecting minors online. This requires embedding risk assessment and mitigation directly into the development phase of digital services, backed by “meaningful” transparency.

The approach relies on the deployment of robust, privacy-preserving age assurance technologies to ensure children only interact with age-appropriate content. Furthermore, minors’ accounts must be secured with high-level privacy settings and recommendation algorithms designed to minimize excessive usage, complemented by tools that empower children to manage their own digital footprint.

At a foundational level, platforms must implement aggressive measures to stop the creation and spread of harmful content, such as child sexual abuse material and AI-generated non-consensual imagery, while providing dedicated support systems for victims.

These safeguards are further strengthened by providing parents with interoperable supervision tools and establishing broad digital literacy programs to help families navigate the complexities of modern technology, including generative AI. Finally, fostering a culture of cooperation between service providers and the research community to share data and continuously refine the strategies used to keep young users safe.

The principles will be clarified via an action plan with concrete measures, while international cooperation between G7 partners and relevant actors is a priority. The EU Commission mentions its cooperation agreements with national regulators as a way to support and enforce its own Digital Services Act. The signers include the UK’s OfCom, Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and Australia’s eSafety Commissioner.

G7 digital ministers agreed to the principles during meetings in Paris, where online child safety, AI governance, cyber threats and the detection of AI-generated content were central themes.

Article Topics

age verification  |  biometrics  |  children  |  G7  |  Japan  |  regulation  |  social media