While Apple is currently lobbying against being given a legal responsibility for age verification when it comes to downloading apps, I think the company’s customers would very much benefit from it taking on this role.
Given the company’s track record in finding privacy-respecting approaches to personal data, I would like to see it go even further than the proposals we’ve seen to date …
The age verification story so far
Some US states and countries have mandatory minimum ages for certain types of apps. The most striking example of this is in Australia, where the country has now banned anyone under 16 from using social media apps, but we’ve also seen requirements for age verification in a growing number of US states.
The legal position at present is that individual developers, rather than Apple and Google, are responsible for verifying the ages of those downloading their apps. However, federal lawmakers are considering changing this with a new proposed law, the App Store Accountability Act.
Instead of users having to prove their age to a whole bunch of individual developers each time they download an app with a minimum age requirement, the idea is that we would do so once to either Apple or Google, and the company would then age-gate apps as appropriate.
I trust Apple more than developers
I recently outlined the two reasons I’ve long been in favour of this approach.
Forcing users to hand over government photo ID and video selfies to an endless array of developers is a privacy nightmare. I’d far rather trust Apple to verify identity and age once, and then simply block downloads of age-inappropriate apps.
It would also be a way better user experience if each of us only had to verify our age one time, rather than every single time we downloaded a new age-gated app.
Imagine, for example, being offered the choice of proving your identity to Meta in order to access Instagram, or doing so to Apple, with Meta being told only that your age has been verified. I don’t think that’s a difficult decision.
It’s not just that I trust Apple way more than Meta, it’s that I also know that Apple would find a privacy-respecting approach. Even if the law requires it to demand photo ID, I would fully expect Apple to destroy photos of documentation immediately after verification using a method that puts it beyond recovery, and to allow security researchers to verify the approach it is using. I submit exhibit A in support of my contention.
It isn’t just apps
Age verification isn’t just affecting apps – it’s also beginning to be an issue for websites. The UK, for example, recently introduced a new law that requires adult websites to verify the age of visitors. The problem with this is that the law is worded in rather vague terms, which means that sex education websites and more may fall under the requirement.
There have also been growing suggestions that gambling websites should be required to use photo ID to verify the age of their users after teenagers were found to be using credit cards belonging to their parents or guardians.
Cynics are suggesting that the real motivation for governments is a Big Brother desire to be able to identify everyone online. Whether or not this is the case, I do think it’s inevitable that a growing number of US states and countries are going to require age verification for more and more apps and websites.
Apple could easily be the solution
Imagine that when you prove your identity to Apple, the company also associates that with Safari on your devices. Next time you visit a website which requires age verification, the site itself receives no personal data from you, just confirmation from Apple that you are an adult.
There is precedent for this trust model. When you make an online purchase with Apple Pay, the retailer does not get to see proof of your identity. Instead, your device tells it that it has used biometric confirmation in the form of Face ID or Touch ID, and the retailer trusts that.
Exactly the same is true when you use a passkey instead of a password: all the website knows is that your Apple device has used Face ID or Touch ID to verify your identity. It would be trivial for Apple to add a “verified adult” flag to the information it provides to websites.
Would you like to see this?
Top comment by SeismicShift9999
You've written this same article THREE times in the last week. The fact that you continue to refuse to mention how Facebook is lobbying the government to force its responsibility for moderation onto other companies, plus the fact that ID verification to simply browse the Internet is NOT privacy protecting is becoming extremely creepy now.
While I might agree with you in principle, the reality is that this is happening whether we want it or not.
No, no it's not, and that's exactly why I'm suspecting something weird about these articles. The fact that law is being debated and challenged in court in America basically means it's not certain, and you continue to push ID verification rather than explain why Apple's current system where parents create accounts and manage their age on their accounts is insufficient.
You're in the UK, and I understand that alters your view on what's "inevitable" given UK has passed a law, but laws can be repealed and changed, and countries not yet taking away privacy doesn't mean they should or will.
You can argue that there should be no age verification for either apps or websites and that this should instead be a parental responsibility. While I might agree with you in principle, the reality is that this is happening whether we want it or not.
The question, then, is not whether or not we will be subject to age verification, but who we would rather be given responsibility for this. That’s the reason this particular poll doesn’t have an other/neither option.
Please take our poll and share your thoughts in the comments.
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