What is 'age assurance'—Apple's new tool for age verfication
What's the story
Apple has announced a new 'age assurance' feature to let parents share their kid's age with app developers without revealing sensitive information like birthdays or government ID numbers.
The move comes as several US states and federal lawmakers consider age-verification laws for social media and other apps.
The proposed legislation would require app store operators like Apple and Google to verify user ages, sparking a debate in the tech industry over who should shoulder the burden.
Industry debate
Tech giants divided over age verification responsibility
The onus of age verification of sub-18 users has divided tech giants.
Meta has long pushed for a law that would mandate app stores to verify ages when a child downloads an app.
However, Apple was hesitant to collect sensitive data for these verifications.
In a whitepaper on its website, the company said while only a few apps may require age verification, all users would have to submit their sensitive personally identifying information.
Privacy protection
Apple's 'age assurance' aims to protect user privacy
To tackle privacy concerns, Apple intends to introduce 'age assurance.'
This would let parents enter a child's age while creating an account and decide if the kid can share a "declared age range" with third-party app developers.
Parents can also disable this age-range sharing.
As Apple says, this way, privacy is protected by giving parents control over their kids' sensitive personal information and limiting third-party data sharing.
Industry response
Meta views Apple's move as a 'positive 1st step'
Meta's spokesperson Stephanie Otway described Apple's new tech as a "positive first step."
However, she noted that it still requires the child to share age range data with the developer.
Otway stressed that parents should have final say over the apps their teens use and backed legislation requiring app stores to verify a child's age and obtain parental consent before an app is downloaded.