No ‘silver bullet' for age verification in Labor's social media ban, project chief says
The brains tasked with finding a way to enforce Labor's world-leading social media ban for under 16s say it is possible but that there is no 'silver bullet'.
The preliminary findings of the Age Assurance Technology Trial (AATT) were released on Friday just six months before the ban was set to come into force.
Project chief Tony Allen said his team found 'there isn't a one solution fits all' but rather a range of options that parties could use.
'There isn't like a silver bullet that will solve everything,' Mr Allen told Sky News.
'And different providers of social media services, for instance, will need to explore exactly what will work for them and their users, and that's really for them to assess their risk and to consider what they might want to implement.'
In terms of what it might look like in practice, he suggested 'successive validated' – a series of tests designed to firm up a user's age.
Mr Allen said it could start with 'something which is fairly simple, like holding your hand up or showing your face or talking'.
'And then that might not give you sufficient level of confidence, so then move on to maybe age inference techniques, or ultimately, they may need to move on to age verification where you need some sort of record or document,' he said.
The trial uncovered some challenges.
It found parental control and consent systems could be effective when first rolled out but could not 'cope with the evolving capacity of children' or properly protect a 'child's digital footprint'.
It also warned that 'service providers were over-anticipating the eventual needs of regulators' and over-collecting user data.
This consequently 'increased risk of privacy breaches', according to the findings.
But Mr Allen said the 'clear conclusion' was that enforcing age limits could be enforced safely.
He held back on putting a figure on the efficacy, noting the measurers were not 'foolproof'.
'There are ways that they (children) can get around them,' Mr Allen said.
'But then we've had tobacco laws for 100 years to stop children accessing tobacco, and it doesn't stop them from accessing some children from tobacco.
'So you have to try and work on how you reduce the risk and reduce the instance.
'You'll never completely eliminate it.'
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