Australia’s government says social media age checks ‘can be done’, despite errors and privacy risks

The Australian government today released a long-awaited report on a trial of automated tools for determining a person’s age.

So-called age assurance technology is expected to play a key role in enforcing the ban on social media accounts for under-16s that will come into effect in December this year.

The report suggests existing age assurance technology can be used to determine whether social media users are over 16. However, many details of how the technology might be used are still unclear – and concerns over privacy, security and reliability remain.

What did the trial find?

The core aim of the trial was to “understand if age assurance can be done without compromising Australian citizens’ privacy and security”. It also aimed to “inform consideration of best practice and potential regulatory approaches”.

The trial evaluated over 60 technologies, from 48 age assurance technology providers. It was designed to see “if the technologies as a whole work”, to provide a snapshot on the current “state of the art” of age assurance technologies.

The report’s key findings argue age assurance “can be done”. With some caveats, it said there are “no substantial technological limitations” to prevent using these systems to enforce the social media ban.

Prone to errors

Some initial findings of the trial were released in June. At the time, other experts and I raised concerns about the limitations of the technology.

The new report provides more detail, but only reinforces these existing concerns.

The report’s findings show age estimation is possible with available technologies. However, it makes clear that errors of up to two or three years are common.

This means people as young as 13 or 14 could be estimated to be 16 years of age, and gain access to platforms when they should be blocked. And some 16- and 17-year-olds could be marked under age and restricted.

The technologies can also be more error-prone for young women, compared to young men, and for those with darker skin tones.

Many questions remain

Parents may be left with a false sense of security that these tools will keep their under-16 children from holding social media accounts. At the same time, users who are wrongly deemed under age may need to go through additional checks.

However, it is not yet clear how further age verification would work. We don’t know whether Australians will be able to verify age via third parties, such as linking to a digital government ID platform. The process may involve providing government-issued ID directly to technology companies.

Australian consumers have raised concerns about privacy implications of requests for ID, given the number of large-scale data breaches affecting large companies.

The report also found “concerning evidence” some age assurance providers were building tools to enable data tracing, with potential for data breaches.

The report also makes clear that there is no one-size-fits-all solution for age assurance. Individual social media companies will decide what approach they want to take to ensure young people are restricted from holding social media accounts.

Australians may face multiple requests for age assurance when using various social media platforms. It’s unclear whether a one-time assurance will be sufficient. Users may need to perform an age check with every sign-in.

With the social media ban looming, Australians are left with many unanswered questions. In the coming weeks, the government will release further guidance on the “reasonable steps” platforms must take to comply with the social media ban legislation.

This is when Australians will finally understand what will be expected of them, as well, to confirm their social media account access.