Ottawa wants to block kids from social media. How would age verification work?

In June, Canada's federal government introduced Bill C-34, mandating social media platforms to block access for users under 16. However, the precise methods of age verification remain to be determined. Culture Minister Marc Miller mentioned that there will be discussions between platforms and authorities regarding privacy protection and adequacy of the measures.

Various countries are implementing age restrictions on social media, such as the United Kingdom and France. France's Constitutional Council recently struck down their ban, citing it as too broad and infringing upon freedom of expression and privacy rights. Canada is following suit in this global trend.

Several age verification systems are being utilized worldwide, with differing levels of effectiveness. In Australia, a law mandates social media platforms to take reasonable steps to prevent kids under 16 from using their services. Despite the removal or restriction of millions of accounts, a substantial number of children aged under 16 retain their accounts.

Australia's online safety commissioner's report highlighted the limitations of facial age estimation, which tends to have higher error rates for children close to the age threshold of 16 years.

Andrew MacDougall, a senior policy fellow at McGill University's Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy, advises Canada to learn from Australia's experience by setting its own standard for age verification. The U.K.'s Online Safety Act outlines seven separate methods for legal access to adult content. These include facial age estimation, digital ID issued by governments or companies, credit cards, mobile network operators, banks, email-based verification, and photo ID-matching.

While no single method is perfect, methods relying on existing relationships are considered more straightforward and reduce the risk of data misuse. However, young users aged 16 and under often lack these traditional verification methods. The use of photo ID-matching and email-based verification carries greater privacy concerns. In Canada, the Conservative party opposes the idea of a government-issued digital ID.