Kids and teens under the age of 16 won’t be able to pay social media companies to keep their account from December 10, but the idea of money could be used for age verification.
December 10 is almost here, and services are ramping up the “what’s next” phase of their part of the program.
While the government’s push to keep young people off social until they reach a certain age is definitely happening, and going into effect in less than two weeks, social media players are detailing what their users can expect, particularly if they’re under the age of 16, the government’s release age for its social media age assurance regulation, which it has tried to say isn’t a ban (even if it kind of is).
We’ve already heard from Meta regarding what Facebook, Instagram, and Threads plan to do for age verification, and Roblox chimed in even without being one of the affected services, possibly because it could be in the crosshairs soon, as well.
Now it’s Snapchat’s time, with a few options available to let its users verify an age.
Officially, there will be three approaches, one of which will use a selfie to gauge facial age estimation, not far from the Roblox approach. Snapchat will use k-ID to analyse the information, and provide the result, but can also use a government-issued photo ID, such as a driver’s license or something similar. That can be used to verify age for Snapchat as well.
And then there’s something different: your bank.
Users with access to an Australian bank account can use ConnectID, an Australian service that connects to a banking app and verifies age details using that.
“People are understandably uneasy about uploading passports or licences to social media apps,” said Andrew Black, Managing Director of ConnectID.
“This solution shows it’s possible to protect sensitive personal data while helping social media platforms meet their new obligations responsibly,” he said.
The addition effectively gives Snapchat users an easy way to confirm their ID, provided they have banking in the first place. At the age of 16 and over, that’s very likely, too.
