US Regulator Rejects Facial Age Estimation for Verifying Parental Consent

The US Federal Trade Commission has turned down a proposal to utilize facial age estimation technology as a means of verifying parental consent for the collection of children's data under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. The proposal, which was jointly submitted by the Entertainment Software Rating Board, SuperAwesome, and Yoti, sought to add this technology to the list of approved methods for obtaining parental consent. Currently, COPPA requires websites and services targeting children under 13 to obtain parental consent before collecting their information, with approved methods including credit card use, driver's license verification, and video calls with parents. The FTC received 354 comments on the issue, with opponents raising concerns about privacy, deepfakes, and the technology's effectiveness, while supporters argued it was comparable to existing methods and had sufficient privacy safeguards. The commissioners voted 4-0 to reject the proposal, but did not rule out the possibility of re-filing in the future. The decision comes as Yoti's technology undergoes evaluation by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which may provide further insight into the issue. The ESRB had requested a 90-day delay to allow for the assessment, but the FTC declined, citing uncertainty over the timeline. In response to the ruling, an ESRB representative expressed disappointment but remained hopeful that innovative technologies like facial age estimation would be considered compliant with COPPA in the future.