Social media bid to force app stores to check ages isn’t ‘robust’ as giants handball responsibility

Relying on app stores run by Apple and Google to verify the age of users – as social media giants want – isn’t a robust method of enforcing a ban on under-16s, an independent technology assessment has found. Social media companies Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, and Snapchat want to make app stores check people’s ages, rather than the platforms doing it when children try to create accounts. But a report the Government released on Monday finds there’s no buy-in from Apple and Google, who run the app stores, and they don’t double-check age information anyway. The 1200-page, 10-volume report from the age assurance technology trial was commissioned ahead of the ban on children using social media coming into effect on December 10. It found that, in general, age assurance is practical and achievable and there is a range of technology options available. These include methods that verify (match users with documentation), estimate (based on physical features such as facial scans) or infer (using established facts other than identity documents) a user’s age. The report doesn’t endorse any particular method or technology provider, but rather sought to understand whether it was possible to do age assurance without compromising people’s privacy and security. Under the social media ban, the onus falls on the tech companies to make sure they don’t have anyone aged under 16 on their platforms. They face fines of nearly $50 million for breaches. But Meta and Snap have argued that a better way of keeping kids off their platforms would be for Apple and Google to stop them downloading the apps in the first place. However, the report handed to the government says this approach, known as using the “tech stack”, won’t work without buy-in from Apple and Google. “While social media platforms are pushing for systemic age assurance at the app store level, actual implementation depends on the willingness of a small number of dominant tech companies to enable or share control of these processes,” the report states. The app store operators also mainly rely on self-declared or parent-entered information and don’t cross-check it. “Without independent age verification and without adoption by key operators such as Apple and Google, these models do not currently meet the criteria for robust age assurance,” the report states. “While Apple and Google – as the operators of the two dominant global app stores – are central to any model ... neither company has formally endorsed the proposal as put forward by social media platforms such as Meta and Snap.” It also raises concerns about entrusting age assurance to just two globally dominant companies, and who would be held responsible for “downstream failures” of content moderation or child protection on other platforms. Communication Minister Anika Wells said the report’s conclusions and evidence would help the eSafety Commissioner draw up guidance to industry on its obligations under the social media ban. “While there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to age assurance, this trial shows there are many effective options and importantly that user privacy can be safeguarded,” she said. The trial was run by UK company Age Check Certification Scheme and 47 tech companies took part. They included Apple, Google, Meta, Snapchat and TikTok along with providers of age assurance products. It examined these products and also held field trials with about 1300 students at 11 schools around the country, including St Mark’s Anglican Community School in Hillarys and St Stephen’s Duncraig and Carramar campuses.