David Bridges
The platform X has recently implemented age assurance checks in response to regulatory pressure from Irish authorities regarding the new standards outlined in Ireland’s Online Safety Code.
Ireland’s online safety regulations, which took effect this week, mandate that all video-sharing platforms must introduce robust age-checking measures to safeguard younger users. This requirement extends to major platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and X, which are now legally obligated to comply with these new regulations.
Platforms that fail to adhere to these regulations could face hefty penalties of up to $23 million or 10% of the platform’s annual revenue, whichever is higher, for any violations.
Irish regulators have been urging X to enhance its processes to comply with the new laws, and just earlier this week, they expressed concerns about the lack of evidence indicating that X was making any progress towards alignment with these requirements.
However, in a recent update, X has revised its official documentation to include comprehensive information about its age assurance measures, detailing the methods it plans to employ to verify user ages within the application.
According to X:
“Where X is legally obligated to implement age verification, we adopt a multi-step approach to determine if users are 18 years old or younger. This process enables us to apply suitable settings, such as restricting access to sensitive content, including pornography.
Unlike Meta, X is not planning to utilize third-party age verification services. Instead, X aims to adopt a more lenient approach to user age verification.
“In cases where applicable, we begin by evaluating certain highly reliable indicators to verify a user’s age. These indicators may include:
- Self-attested age: If a user has previously stated that they are under 18.
- ID verification:If a user has previously completed the ID verification process provided by X.
- Legacy verified public figures: If a user was verified under our Legacy Verified policy.
- Account creation date: If an account was created in 2012 or earlier.
- Grey Badged accounts: The grey checkmark signifies that an account represents a government or multilateral organization or official.
- Gold Badged accounts:The gold checkmark indicates that the account belongs to an official organization verified through our Verified Organizations process.”
These elements present some intriguing aspects.
Firstly, the fact that X is still employing “legacy verification” as an indicator highlights the shortcomings of the current verification system, where X no longer actively verifies anything, as long as users are willing to pay for it.
The account creation date is also not a reliable indicator, as potential issues arise if someone takes control of another person’s account or utilizes a brand account that has been passed down. Moreover, gold checkmarks can be obtained by anyone willing to pay, hence they do not serve as a definitive measure of the account holder’s age.
This is the approach X is currently adopting, so it will be interesting to see how this unfolds.
Additionally, aside from these elements, X also states that it will employ email-based estimation techniques to ascertain users’ ages. This includes a method called “reverse address book median age estimation,” which uses a users’ social connections to infer their age.
These methods seem inadequate, and it is difficult to envision that the Irish regulators will find them acceptable.
As a final measure, if previous strategies fail, X indicates that it will also provide:
- Facial age estimation:Users can upload a live selfie, which will be analyzed by our artificial intelligence systems to estimate their age.
- ID verification:Users can submit a government-issued ID, which will be utilized by our AI systems to estimate their age. These functionalities are expected to be rolled out in the coming weeks, and updates will be provided on this page accordingly.
At present, X has not yet implemented these measures, despite the Irish law coming into effect just four days ago.
It appears to be a rather lackluster strategy from X, one that falls short of fulfilling the legitimate age verification requirements outlined in the new legislation.
It seems that X aims to demonstrate enough effort to evade penalties while simultaneously resisting the push for comprehensive user age verification.
This attitude reflects X‘s general aversion to government regulation and its attempts, under the leadership of Elon Musk, to counter such regulations wherever possible. However, it is unlikely that this stance will favor X in this matter, as Irish regulators are already closely monitoring the platform’s compliance efforts with the new laws.
What lies ahead? X will likely argue that it has implemented these measures in good faith, hoping to gain additional time to seemingly oppose the regulations. This could potentially result in further fines for the company and additional legal challenges for Musk’s team.
Moreover, anticipate that many users on X will be quite displeased if the platform begins to rigorously enforce age verification.
Maya Kensington
