Social media platforms may soon be able to tell if children under 16 are attempting to use their iPhone apps, as Apple brings in new technology that could play a role in enforcing Australia’s social media ban.
Later this year, Apple plans to introduce a declared age range API (application programming interface) on iOS for its iPhone and iPad devices, which developers will be able to use to request information on the age range of a child user, with parental consent.
Through this process, Apple would then indicate to an app whether a user was under 18, under 16, or under 13, and then decide what content within that app to allow the user to see, or whether to block access to the app entirely.
Parents would have control over the declared age of the child on the Apple device, and be able to correct the date of birth if it was given incorrectly.
The child’s actual birth date would not be shared with apps under this model.
Apple will also update the age ratings for apps in the app store from the current two ratings, 12+ and 17+, to four: 4+, 13+, 16+ and 18+.
The highest rating would be for apps that include gambling, intense references to alcohol, tobacco or drug use, sexual content or nudity, or realistic violence.
Under the Australian government’s under-16s social media ban passed in December last year, platforms included in the ban – such as TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat, at least initially – would be required to take reasonable steps to assure the ages of their users.
Prior to the legislation passing, Meta and TikTok pushed the government to make Apple and Google as the device makers bear responsibility for age assurance, but the federal government decided the onus should rest on the app makers.
Under the Apple model, it will still ultimately be the app itself that checks a user’s age. But it will be up to the government to determine if this is a “reasonable step” for the social media companies to keep under-16s off their platform.
The explanatory memorandum for the age ban bill states the “reasonable steps” test will be applied “objectively, having regard to the suite of methods available, their relative efficacy, costs associated with their implementation, and data and privacy implications on users”.
It will be up to platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to determine whether to take up Apple’s option, in the context of the suite of measures likely to be needed to cover non-Apple users as well.
Google announced earlier this month it would begin testing a “machine learning-based age estimation model” this year in the US, to evaluate whether a user is under or over 18, and roll out the tech to more countries over time.
Parental certification and controls are forming part of the age assurance technology trial currently under way, and due to provide a preliminary report to government at the end of April.
The social media ban is due to go into effect in December, after the communications minister has decided which platforms the ban will apply to, and what technology could be used to assure user ages.
