The Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) was met with scrutiny when it said it was working on a facial recognition tool to verify users' ages with an application submitted around that same time. The organization's application was rejected by the FTC. The application was denied in a vote by the FTC, which said it received over 350 comments before the vote. The FTC denied the application for a parental consent mechanism.
The FRC would have added the facial age detection tech to the list of acceptable forms of receiving parental consent for collecting information from minor-aged users under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. The COPPA law protects the privacy of children under the age of 13 by asking their parents for permission for the collection or use of personal data. The digital identity firm Yoti and the ESRB collaborated to create this technology to verify users' ages. The ESRB said it would not keep the data after the analysis concluded and that it was not meant to identify individuals. The verification process includes a user taking a picture of themselves and the system checking to see if there is a human face in the frame. A concept similar to one Roblox was added in 2023, where users have to take a selfies with a government-issued ID like a driver's license or passport to verify their age. The application could be re-filed in the future after the FTC rejected the proposal.
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