Global tech giant Meta has proposed Australia implement an app store-based approach to age verification for social media platforms, arguing that existing industry measures have limitations.
Under the plans backed by the Opposition, digital platforms are required to take measures to verify the age of their users or face fines.
However, at a parliamentary inquiry hearing on Sept. 4, Meta Vice President and Global Head of Safety Antigone Davis proposed that introducing age verification at the app store on mobile devices would streamline the process.
“With this solution, when a teen wants to download an app, app stores would be required to notify their parents,” she told the Joint Select Committee on Social Media and Australian Society.
“Parents can [then] decide if they want to approve the download.
“They can also verify the age of their teen when setting up their phone, negating the need for everyone, adults and teens alike, to verify their age multiple times across multiple apps.”
The vice president also noted that parents could oversee their children’s online activity and ensure that they did not access adult content or apps that they did not want them to use.
In addition, Davis said other social media companies approved the app store-based approach.
“Snap [and] Tiktok have all made public statements supporting this kind of approach,” she said.
“Additionally, the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children is leading a campaign in support of this approach.
Meta Vice President Says Other Age Verification Methods Have Limitations
Following Meta’s suggestion, a member of the Committee questioned whether the company wanted to shrink its responsibility for age verification.In response, Davis denied that Meta had such an intention.
“We are not trying to shift the responsibility entirely to the app store,” she said.
“What we’re really saying is that we need a multi-layered approach.”
While the vice president said her company had taken steps to implement age assurance on its platform, she noted that those measures were not perfect.
“Most of the age assurance that’s done across the industry has limitations,” she told the Joint Select Committee on Social Media and Australian Society.
“Whether it’s asking for an ID and then creating an additional privacy violation to take a whole slew of information that is unnecessary to assess age or using an age estimation classifier, which has some level of accuracy but is not entirely accurate because it’s not based in sort of a ground truth verification from a user.”
Australians Think Age Verification Unlikely to Work: Survey
Davis’ remarks follow a recent survey by the University of Sydney showing that many Australians did not think age verification was effective despite strong support for the measure.According to the survey, 72 percent of teenagers aged 12–17 and 86 percent of parents said they believed more effective age restrictions would make it safer for young people to use social media.
However, some survey participants pointed out that children could use methods like VPN (virtual private network) to circumvent age verification.
Meanwhile, parents worried they would be burdened with providing proof of age and managing consent for their children’s social media usage.
There were also concerns about the risk of data breaches with age verification measures.
“It certainly makes you think about it a lot more. What are they using that data for? Is it really just for age verification, or is it for something more nefarious?” one parent said.
