According to those involved in the process, software owned by Australia’s largest banks is being tested as a means of adhering to a social media ban for teenagers that goes into effect in December. This may potentially include the nation’s financial industry in the first regulatory crackdown in history.
Top lenders in Australia own ConnectID, an identity verification program that uses bank account information to verify an individual’s age. It is a component of a software package being marketed by k-ID, an age estimation company based in Singapore that determines a user’s age using face assessment technologies.
According to k-ID, certain Australian social media businesses are already testing the combination, though it would not specify which. In Britain, the chatroom-focused platform Discord, which recently implemented a lower-age restriction for explicit content, uses k-ID to estimate users’ ages.
No clients have yet to sign up for assistance with the social media restriction, according to ConnectID, which confirmed the collaboration with k-ID.
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Banking Industry’s Role in Teen Social Media Ban
Additionally, the businesses wish to offer their services to Australian gaming platforms, which are exempt from the social media ban but are subject to other rules that require stricter content filtering for younger users.
As nations take action to protect teens online, the partnership may result in Australia’s banking industry playing an unexpectedly important role in the implementation of a law that is being keenly studied globally.
In a government-commissioned trial of the system this year, ConnectID was one of dozens of age-assurance suppliers; nevertheless, its collaboration with k-ID and the fact that social media companies are testing it have never been publicized.
By connecting a user’s bank account to a website, the Australian company verifies whether a user is older than a certain age by sending an anonymous signal. According to the business, most teenagers have bank accounts, so if a facial estimate tool gives an inaccurate result, they can utilize ConnectID to receive a correct one.
Challenges with Age Verification Technology
In an interview, ConnectID managing director Andrew Black stated, “It’s something that we’ve been doing with significant partners over the last few years across any ID.”
“Age assurances and social media are an important inflection point for that.”
According to a report released last month, the trial revealed that age-guessing software could enforce the prohibition in most cases, but that the accuracy of selfie-based age estimating systems declined near the 16-year-old cut-off.
According to the government, social media companies ought to provide users with increasingly precise choices for verifying their age.
