Frequently Asked Questions
Is it practical to expect social media companies to know the actual ages of their users?
In many circumstances, social media companies already have this information — Big Tech wants to know as much about their consumers as possible to deliver relevant content and targeted advertising to their users.
What if social media companies do not already know a user’s age? How can they go about obtaining age verification without infringing data privacy?
This information can be accurately obtained while preserving users’ privacy. Many online age assurance technologies have features and configurations that allow for data minimization and the protection of user privacy. They offer social media platforms the option of connecting via application programming interface and can determine and communicate a user’s age without sharing any other user data with the platform.
Age assurance providers can also solely restrict the use of user data to conduct age assurance, and once completed, delete the data without storing it.
Zero-knowledge proof age assurance solutions, also known as “double-blind” age verification, are another option that maintains user privacy. While this method is not widely used, it’s gaining traction as a maximally privacy-preserving method for users and has been a focus of efforts by both governments and the private sector to prioritize consumer privacy.
Resources
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Congressional Research Service. “Section 230: An Overview.” Congress.gov, https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R46751.
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Yale Medicine. “Social Media and Teen Mental Health: A Parent’s Guide.” Yale Medicine, https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/social-media-teen-mental-health-a-parents-guide.
Columbia University Irving Medical Center. “Addictive Use of Social Media, Not Total Time, Associated With Youth Mental Health.” CUIMC, https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/news/addictive-use-social-media-not-total-time-associated-youth-mental-health.
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