Update: The ESRB issued a statement clarifying that the technology does not "verify a user's identity" nor does it scan a minor's face to determine if they are old enough to purchase a particular game. To ensure compliance with COPPA's privacy requirements, the age of the subject We only use images to determine.

"The images and data used for this process will not be stored, used for AI training, used for marketing, or shared with anyone; the only information that will be communicated to the company requesting the VPC is whether the person is over 25 years of age A "yes" or "no" determination is all that is given.

Original

Remember a few years ago when Tencent, a major Chinese gaming company, started using facial recognition to prevent children from playing too many video games?

The ESRB, along with digital ID company Yoti and Epic Games-owned "youth digital media" company SuperAwesome, submitted a proposal to the FTC seeking approval of a new "verifiable parental consent mechanism" called the Privacy Face Age Presumption. Simply put, parents would take a selfie, assisted by an "automated face-taking module," which would then be analyzed by the system to verify that it is an adult face. The entire verification process takes an "average of less than one second" and the image is permanently deleted after verification is complete.

"Still image uploads will not be accepted, and photos that do not meet the quality level required to make an age estimate will be rejected," the application states.

"These factors minimize the risk of circumvention and of children taking images of adults they do not know.

Of course, children outwitting the system is not the only risk. Accuracy is a big issue, given that facial recognition technology is notorious for its racism: a study conducted in the U.S., for example, found that Asian Americans and African Americans were 100 times more likely to be misidentified by facial recognition systems than Caucasians. And while we may be underestimating the magic of this, determining whether someone is 16 or 18 years old from a single selfie seems like a real roll of the dice. The ESRB, however, dismissed concerns about the "fairness" of the system, stating that "the difference in rejection rates based on gender and skin color is very small."

"For ages 25-35, the data suggest that 15 out of 1,000 women versus 7 out of 1,000 men could be misclassified as under 25 (and have the option to verify otherwise)," the application states. The range of differences by skin color is 8 out of 1,000 versus 28 out of 1,000." As is inherent in any automated system, bias exists, but this is not significant, especially when compared to the benefits and increased access for certain groups of parents.

It is important to note that none of these systems were proposed to replace the current system: instead, the ESRB presented the facial age verification plan as an "additional, optional authentication method" that would be particularly useful for those without photo identification. pc. In a statement sent to Gamer, Yoti also said that the system would work without actually recognizing or identifying individuals: instead, the technology would simply estimate the age of the image seen.

That's all well and good, but it doesn't change the fact that, in my eyes, this is really a serious invasion of privacy. Frankly, relying on potentially dodgy technology to enforce social mores is not a very good idea in the first place. Besides, does anyone really think that a 16 year old astute kid can't master this system in about 15 minutes?

The ESRB actually made the request to the FTC on June 2, but it's only now becoming clear because the FTC is seeking public comment on the plan (via GamesIndustry). Those wishing to comment have until August 21 to do so at federalregister.gov.

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