New York puts accuracy minimums for age assurance into effect with SAFE for Kids Act

The New York Legislature has passed the final rules relating to social media age restrictions under the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act, with a release from Attorney General Letitia James declaring that “New York minors are in the midst of a mental health crisis caused by harmful social media use.”

New York’s legislation, which has been hailed by age assurance industry advocates as some of the clearest and smartest social media legislation to date, hones in on addictive feeds that personalize content, and bans notifications related to addictive feeds between the hours of midnight and 6 a.m. Users under 18 who wish to access these features must prove their age using a highly effective age assurance method, or obtain verified parental consent.

Per the release, “instead of the default algorithmically personalized feeds designed to keep young people on the platform, users under 18 will only be shown content from other accounts they follow or otherwise select in a set sequence, such as chronological order, unless they get parental consent for an addictive feed.”

Age assurance providers welcome hard targets for accuracy

The rule is also among the first to include specific accuracy minimums for highly effective age assurance. Acceptable methods must post a false positive rate that is equal to or less than 0.1 percent of minors ages 0 to 7; 1 percent of minors ages 8 to 13; 2 percent of minors ages 14 to 15; 8 percent of minors age 16; and 15 percent of minors age 17, “excluding failures or refusals by a user to provide requested data and inconclusive age assurance outcomes.”

Circumvention also gets addressed, in that acceptable age assurance tech must demonstrate “a rate of detecting method circumvention for an age assurance method that meets or exceeds 98 percent.”

The law goes into effect on January 25, 2027.

James says the new rules “set standards for age verification and parental control to ensure tech companies are doing their part to keep kids safe on their platforms. Young people are particularly vulnerable to addictive social media features, and my office is committed to protecting all New Yorkers from potentially harmful technologies and companies that try to take advantage of them.”

Email age inference on the menu for New Yorkers

In comments sent to Biometric Update, Verifymy Chief Operating Officer Andy Lulham lauds New York’s law as a step in the right direction for social media regulations.

“Algorithms which learn our interests and recommend content can enhance adults’ experience online, but this new piece of legislation requires platforms to shield younger users who may be less able to regulate their behaviour from these tools,” Lulham says. “Underpinning this regulatory framework with age assurance is integral, ensuring robust protections for under-18s while offering technology that is viable for the industry to implement.”

Lulham extols the legislation’s allowance of age assurance methods beyond ID checks, which includes Verifymy’s specialty: email-based age checks. And he calls the stipulations around acceptable false positive rates for 16- and 17-year-olds, and a requirement for annual independent testing, as “similarly pragmatic” measures, which “recognize that while child safety is paramount, low friction for adult users should also be prioritized.”

New York loves to set a trend, and the inclusion of accuracy minimums is likely to prompt other jurisdictions to consider the same approach. In digital identity circles, the generally preferred direction is toward independent testing, measurable outcomes and trusted certifications. At some point, regulators in the UK, EU and elsewhere are going to have to face the fact that the “highly effective” label needs clear statistical parameters. With UK regulator Ofcom currently tasked with refining its definition, age assurance may be about to become even more of a numbers game.

Article Topics

age inference  |  age verification  |  legislation  |  New York  |  social media  |  United States  |  VerifyMy