Solving for age assurance - by Max Bleyleben
These days are seeing a record number of events on the topic of age assurance. First, we had a 2-day multi-stakeholder dialogue organised by the Centre for Information Policy Leadership ( CIPL) and WeProtect Global Alliance, hosted by TikTok in London. Next week is the 5-day (!) Global Age Assurance Standards Summit organised by the Age Check Certification Scheme (ACCS) in Manchester. The week after, Europe’s telecom ministers will meet at the Council of the European Union, where they are expected to issue a declaration encouraging the use of digital ID schemes to age verify minors.
The new urgency has been triggered by new regulations coming into force (like DSA and OSA), growing regulator assertiveness ( ICO/TikTok, DPC/TikTok, efforts to enforce age verification by France’s ARCOM, the upcoming EU Code of conduct on age-appropriate design), and ham-fisted efforts by US state legislators to age-verify teens out of social media.
At these events, most stakeholder groups are well-represented: digital platforms, social media, telcos, think tanks, civil society, academics, technology providers, regulators and trade associations. Notably absent tend to be video game publishers and consoles, one large digital platform named after a fruit, and privacy regulators from the post-Brexit EU, except for Ireland’s hardworking DPC (but sadly including some who are very active in kids’ privacy, like France’s CNIL).
