Roughly a year ago, the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) was met with scrutiny when it announced it was working on a facial recognition tool to verify users' ages with an application submitted around that same time. Well, roughly 300 days later, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it had rejected the organization's application.
In a blog post published last Friday, the FTC announced that it was denying the company's application for the technology. The FTC stated that it denied the application in a vote of 4-0, noting that it received over 350 comments on the issue before the vote. As the FTC notes, those who opposed the application cited privacy, protections, accuracy, and deepfakes as concerns. In contrast, those who supported the application felt it had "sufficient privacy guardrails" in place.
The ESRB did not immediately respond to IGN's request for comment.
FTC denies application for new parental consent mechanism under COPPA: https://t.co/eScweQb5c0
— FTC (@FTC) March 29, 2024
Had the application been approved, 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 (COPPA).
For those unfamiliar with COPPA, the law, in simple terms, is designed to protect the privacy of children under the age of 13 by requesting parental consent for the collection or use of personal data for these underage users.
Last year, the ESRB partnered with the digital identity firm Yoti and SuperAwesome to create this technology to verify users' ages. The ESRB claimed it was not meant to identify individuals outright but rather estimate the user's age and stated it would not store the data after the analysis concluded.
The application submitted last year revealed the steps for verification, which include a user taking a picture of themselves and the system checking to see if there is a human face in the frame and uploading it to Yoti's backend server for age estimation. A concept similar to one Roblox added in 2023, where users must upload a selfie and a government-issued ID like a driver's license or passport to verify their age to view mature content.
While the FTC rejected the proposal, the U.S. regulator said that it could re-file the application "in the future."
Image Credit: da-kuk / Getty Images
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
