Reinhard Hochrieser, SVP of Product and Technology at Jumio, comments, “Meta’s recent settlement over teen safety and COPPA violations could have implications for how age assurance is managed in the United States, setting an important precedent for social platforms. 

“The comprehensive age assurance framework that Meta will be required to implement introduces measurable standards that establish strict false-positive thresholds that are as low as 3%, alongside independent third-party testing, anti-spoofing requirements, demographic parity, and strong data-minimization principles that include age data being deleted after it’s served its purpose.  

“To meet the rigorous compliance requirements, platforms will be heavily incentivized to adopt certified, commercially available technologies that have been tested against these standards over proprietary in-house builds. This is a win for both user safety and privacy. By creating solid benchmarks for effective age assurance, platforms can deploy methods that protect younger users without putting their privacy at risk. Rather than collecting and retaining large amounts of personal information simply to verify age, platforms can meet increasingly strict age assurance requirements while minimizing the sensitive data they collect.” 

However, some believe the changes are insufficient and more needs to be done. 

Erich Kron, CISO Advisor, KnowBe4, says, “While these measures may sound appealing, without more details it is hard to decide if they will be effective at all or if they are just empty promises as in the past. An example might be that while users of the related app may be limited in usage time, will this stop kids from using their browser as well? As anyone with children or teens can attest, they are very adept at getting around any measures that seemed to have been put in place in the past. From having multiple accounts to using a friend’s device, they find the clever ways to bypass most controls.

“We keep hearing how these social media platforms are making things safer for children, however historically measures have not been successful, so it’s tough to hold out hope that these will this time when they have failed in the past.

“Education is critical for parents and kids as we all try to navigate the dangers of our digital world. As things become more connected, everyone needs to have a bit of cyber savvy that was not required with previous generations.

“There are a number of free online sources for educating all ages in the household about modern threats, including one I was happy to be involved with at the beginning called CAPY (Cyber Awareness Program for You). CAPY was designed to provide education without collecting any private information from the people using it.”