ISLAMABAD: As governments crack down on online platforms from social networks to porn sites, business is booming for one sector offering AI age checks based on selfies. The technology promises speed and accuracy in implementing laws like Australia&#39;s social media ban for under-16s&nbsp;&mdash;&nbsp;in force from December 10. As a user, verifying your age with the technology is a breeze. All it requires is taking a head-on selfie with a phone or computer camera, and an automated decision is made within a minute. &quot;We estimated your age is 18 or older,&quot; read a pop-up window on the Roblox gaming site. At startup Yoti&#39;s spacious London office, mannequin heads &mdash; some fitted with wigs or masks &mdash; are lined up along one of the windowsills for testing. Their AI is not fooled by them. &quot;We can&#39;t be sure that the image was of a real face,&quot; said one test platform installed on a smartphone. Over time, &quot;the algorithm got very good at looking at patterns and working out, &#39;this face with these patterns looks like a 17-year-old or a 28-year-old&#39;... it just got very good at estimating age&quot;, said CEO Robin Tombs. Data privacy fears Today, the startup runs around one million age checks a day, including for big-name clients like Meta, TikTok, Sony and Pinterest, Tombs said. Yoti began turning a profit this year after booking $26 million&nbsp;in revenue in the 12 months to March. The company forecasts a 50% increase in sales in its current financial year. Competitors are also doing well, with 34 companies like Persona, Kids Web Services, K-id or VerifyMy tallied among the members of the Age Verification Providers Association (AVPA). In 2021, the AVPA forecast annual revenue of almost $10 billion for the sector across the 37 countries belonging to the OECD club of wealthy nations for the 2031-36 period, although it has not issued any more recent outlooks. AVPA director Iain Corby is wary of predicting exactly what lies ahead. &quot;There&#39;s so much that can happen. Regulation is moving very fast, technology is moving very fast,&quot; he told AFP. AI-powered age verification methods have raised questions over potential bias and privacy impacts. The tools are &quot;potentially a bit intrusive or dangerous to people&#39;s private life,&quot; said Olivier Blazy, a cybersecurity professor at Polytechnique, the prestigious French engineering school. But it also depends on the information that sites share with their third-party age verification provider, he added. &quot;I think the ecosystem is tilted towards AI at the moment, but there may be a pull-back in the coming years to better protect users&#39; private life,&quot; Blazy suggested. Make-up tricks Blazy pointed out that the systems still have weak points, noting that &quot;just with normal makeup, it&#39;s relatively easy to make yourself look older or younger&quot;. Others have pointed to biases in the age-verification algorithms, which can be less accurate in their estimates when presented with non-white faces. One report from an independent Australian body found that &quot;underrepresentation of Indigenous populations remains a challenge&quot; &mdash; albeit one &quot;that vendors are beginning to address&quot;. Yoti boss Robin Tombs acknowledges that less data was available to train the company&#39;s model for some age groups or skin colors. But he insists their tool can &quot;check to see whether we think people are using false accessories or they are using makeup and other such things&quot;. On privacy, he said Yoti&#39;s tool immediately removes all data after carrying out its analysis. Platforms that deploy the selfie analysis tools from companies like Yoti can adjust settings for the evaluations, leaving some margin of error. For example, sites barring under-18s often require the system to judge that visitors are over 21. Those in the grey zone may find themselves asked to fall back on a more traditional verification method &mdash; such as pulling an official ID out of their wallet to snap or scan.

Gadgets

AI age verification tools are booming as governments enforce age limits online. Concerns about privacy, bias, and makeup tricks persist, despite accuracy improvements.

Selfie-based age checks boom as governments push for online controls

SYDNEY: Australia urged social media platforms on Tuesday to employ &quot;minimally invasive&quot; methods to check the age of users covered by its world-first teen social media ban, which takes into account artificial intelligence (AI) and behavioral data.&nbsp;Governments and tech firms worldwide are closely monitoring Australia&#39;s efforts to become the first country to ban the use of social media by those under 16, starting from December.&nbsp;&quot;eSafety recommends the most minimally invasive techniques available,&quot; the internet watchdog said in its guidance for firms to comply with the law passed in November.&nbsp;Social media platforms are not required to conduct blanket age verification, as firms can use existing data to infer age reliably, according to the eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant.&nbsp;&quot;We know that they have the targeting technology to do this,&quot; she told a media briefing.&nbsp;&quot;They can target us with deadly precision when it comes to advertising; certainly, they can do this around the age of a child.&quot;&nbsp;She added, &quot;Adults should not see huge changes ... it would be unreasonable if platforms re-verify everyone&#39;s age.&quot;&nbsp;In July, Grant widened the ban to Alphabet-owned GOOGL.O YouTube, following complaints by Meta&#39;s META.O Facebook and Instagram, Snapchat SNAP.N and TikTok about an earlier decision to exempt the video-sharing site popular with teachers.&nbsp;Google and Meta did not immediately respond to requests for comment.&nbsp;In February, eSafety said 95% of teenagers aged 13 to 15 reported using at least one social media platform since January 2024 but warned that the actual numbers could be much higher.&nbsp;Federal Communications Minister Anika Wells urged &quot;reasonable steps&quot; by social media companies to detect and deactivate underage accounts, to prevent re-registration and provide an accessible complaints process for their users.&nbsp;&quot;We cannot control the ocean, but we can police the sharks, and today we are making clear to the rest of the world how we intend to do this,&quot; Wells told reporters.&nbsp;There was no excuse for non-compliance, she added, as the platforms could do so, ranking among the world&#39;s biggest and best-resourced companies.&nbsp;Amid concern about the impact on young people&#39;s mental health, Australia&#39;s ban passed into law in November 2024, with companies given a year to adopt it, while facing a December 10 deadline to deactivate the accounts of underage users.

social media underage ban, Australia social media curbs

Australasia

Australia eSafety Commissioner says social media platforms are not required to conduct blanket age verification, as firms can use existing data to infer age reliably.

Articles tagged with "Australia social media ban"

Selfie-based age checks boom as governments push for online controls

Australia wants 'minimally invasive' age checks under teen social media ban

Selfie-based age checks boom as governments push for online controls