The Federal Trade Commission has unanimously rejected a request by three software companies to install a new parental consent mechanism that would use biometric technologies to determine a user’s age.
In a 4-0 decision last Friday, commissioners denied a request filed in June 2023 by the Entertainment Software Rating Board; Yoki, a digital identity verification company; and SuperAwesome, a vendor that helps other technology companies comply with parental control requirements under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. The decision follows an open comment period that sought feedback on whether the “Privacy-Protecting Facial Age Estimation” system should be approved.
This system would analyze the geometry of the user’s face to confirm that the person is an adult and can access certain content. The FTC confirmed that 354 comments raised concerns about the software’s data collection and storage capabilities, particularly the generation of deeply fraudulent content, along with other privacy violations.
The FTC confirmed that Yoti submitted the same facial analytics biometric model to the National Institute of Standards and Technology for evaluation.
“The commission refuses to approve the ESRB group’s request at this time,” the decision reads. “The Commission expects that this report will materially assist the Commission and the public in better understanding age verification technologies and the application of the ESRB Group.”
Despite NIST’s pending analysis and report, the FTC decided not to “delay” the official decision to give NIST time to complete its review.
“The Commission does not have sufficient information to indicate that a 90-day timeframe will be adequate to allow the Commission to receive such test results and analyze their impact at the ESRB Group’s request,” the decision said. “Therefore, rather than postpone or extend the deadline for the Commission’s decision on the application, the Commission denies the application without prejudice to the possibility of resubmission in the future.”
Advocacy organizations celebrated the FTC’s decision. Fight for the Future, a digital rights nonprofit, characterized it as a victory for privacy rights.
“Based on a long history of flawed facial recognition technologies that disproportionately harm non-affluent, white and male people, we welcome the FTC’s rejection of this facial recognition technology that is advertised as an age verification tool,” Director of Campaigns and Communications Lia Holland said. in the statement. “With technologies like these, the only winner will ever be the tech corporations. Adults have to give up not only their faces for it to be analyzed and potentially monetized, but also to allow it to invade the rooms where their children play and learn.”
In response, the ESRB said Nextgov/FCW that he is disappointed with the FTC’s ruling.
“We are disappointed that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has declined to issue a substantive decision or delay further decision on our pending request to authorize privacy-protecting age estimation as a verifiable method of parental consent under the COPPA rule,” the statement read.
The ESRB added that it remains “hopeful” that facial age recognition assessment along with “other innovative technologies” used to obtain parental consent will be deemed COPPA compliant in the near future based on the FTC’s previous statements on COPPA provisions – eh.