Apple Unveils Innovative ‘Age Assurance’ Technology as U.S. States Consider New Social Media Regulations

By Stephen Nellis

(Reuters) -On Thursday, Apple announced a new feature that allows parents to share their child’s age with app developers while keeping personal details, like birthdays, private.

This comes as lawmakers in the U.S. are looking at laws for age verification on social media and apps.

States like Utah and South Carolina are discussing rules that would make app stores, such as Apple’s and Google’s, check users’ ages.

This has sparked a debate in the tech world about who should be responsible for age checks for users under 18—app stores or each individual app.

Meta has pushed for rules that would require app stores to verify ages when a child downloads an app.

However, Apple prefers not to handle sensitive data for age confirmation.

In a whitepaper, Apple explained that if they were to verify ages, all users would need to submit sensitive personal data, even if they don’t use the apps needing age checks.

Instead, Apple will introduce something called “age assurance.” Parents can enter their child’s age when setting up an account.

They can then choose to share a “declared age range” with app developers, which does not reveal the child’s exact birthday. Parents will also have the option to stop sharing this information.

Apple stated, “This keeps parents in control of their kids’ sensitive data and limits what’s shared with others.”

A spokesperson for Meta, Stephanie Otway, stated that while Apple’s move is a “positive first step,” it still requires children to share some age data, complicating Meta’s use of this information.

Otway added that parents want to oversee the apps their teens use, which is why they support laws making app stores verify a child’s age and obtain parental approval before downloads.

Currently, Apple already requires parental approval for children to download apps.

(Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San FranciscoEditing by Marguerita Choy)