Age Verification

There are a range of technical protection measures to verify one’s age online ranging from ineffective to intrusive. For example, simply asking for your date of birth or that you are over the age of majority online are ineffective methods. How does a service provider know whether you are telling the truth? On the other extreme, there are techniques that collect biometric information and determine your ‘age’ based on characteristics using AI algorithms. A picture of a child’s face online seems quite worrying. Online access to adult content, services, transactions or interactions puts minors at risk of physical and mental harm. Existing age restrictions are ineffective and cybercrimes against children are rising: 9,441 children in 2020 were victimized from reported cybercrimes, up 200% from 2014 (Statistics Canada, 2022). Bill S-210 introduces age-verification requirements for adult websites but it does not extend to the dominant digital platforms children access that expose them to adult content including gambling, violence, guns, hate speech, sexual content, and more. In reviewing Bill S-203 (now S-210), the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada beckoned the need to establish technical safeguards for age-verification technologies. The standard is intended to support federal and provincial certifications as relevant. When developed and carried out by accredited certification bodies, certification programs do not require the establishment of a costly public sector enforcement apparatus and can be scaled up and down to fluctuating needs.