This week, Peter Kyle, Secretary of State for the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology, published a letter of proposed strategic priorities for online safety. We welcome the draft statement, which highlights the five areas the government believes should be prioritised for creating a safer online environment. These areas are: safety by design, transparency and accountability, agile regulation, inclusivity and resilience, and technology and innovation.
Peter Kyle also made a strong statement that when the Online Safety Act comes into force, Ofcom will have his full support and will expect them to be assertive. He said, “The powers that are going to come in are real. They’re meaningful and my statement makes clear that I expect them to be used to the fullest extent in order to deliver safety for children, but also vulnerable people in general.”
In this blog, we take a look at some of the priorities and the key areas that can positively impact online safety.
Safety by design
Embed safety by design to deliver safe online experiences for all users but especially children, tackle violence against women and girls, and work towards ensuring that there are no safe havens for illegal content and activity, including fraud, child sexual exploitation and abuse, and illegal disinformation.
Priority 1 focuses on the actual design of online platforms. It states that safety by design should be embedded throughout the platform to deliver safer online experiences for all users. Users should be empowered to have more control and choice over the content they see online. And all users, especially children, should have better protections over harmful content.
A key part of this first priority is ensuring companies are effectively using age assurance technology to protect children from harm online. Under the Online Safety Act, regulated companies will need to implement age checking and enforce age limits. This is essential to give users an age-appropriate experience.
Age verification to access adult content is coming into force from January 2025 and highly effective age assurance technology is ready to help platforms comply with the Act. Ofcom has stated the acceptable methods (so far) include open banking, photo ID matching, facial age estimation, mobile network operator age checks, credit card checks and reusable digital ID.
Yoti has already completed over 700 million age assurance checks using a range of these methods and we’re doing this for many of the largest global platforms, including Instagram, OnlyFans and Yubo.
Peter Kyle, as reported in The Telegraph, indicates that from July 2025 social media platforms will also need to enforce their terms and conditions regarding limiting use of their service to over 13s. With this statement, the Government is reinforcing the importance of effective age checks online to deliver age-appropriate experiences for all ages of children.
There are a number of effective and privacy-preserving ways for 13 year olds to prove that they are over 13. Facial age estimation is by far the most practical and inclusive method to help platforms check if a user is above or below a certain age (such as +/- 13, 16 or 18). Yoti facial age estimation technology can correctly estimate 99.5% of 6-12 year olds as under 13, and 100% of children aged 5-7 are assessed to be under 13.
Another method is a reusable Digital ID app (such as Yoti ID, Post Office EasyID or Lloyds Smart ID). Teenagers can use an identity document, such as a passport (which 86% of 13 year olds in the UK own) or a PASS card, to set up their Digital ID and then easily and securely prove their 13+ status from their phone.
The Minister also calls for continued innovation in age assurance technologies to maximise effectiveness and consistent standards. The UK has driven the development of age assurance standards since 2017; first with the Publicly Available Standard for Age Checking PAS 1296:2018 and this May IEEE 2089.1 Standard for Online Age Verification was published, the result of over two years of deliberation by a working group of industry experts from around the world. ISO/IEC 27566 Information security, cybersecurity and privacy protection — Age assurance systems — Framework Part 1 has reached the stage of review at global working group level and an approved standard is expected to be ready in 2025.
There is already a healthy ecosystem of age assurance providers represented by the trade body Age Verification Providers Association and independent testing of age assurance options via the Age Check Certification Scheme.
There is also a global benchmark of facial age estimation undertaken by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) which concluded that facial age estimation, from providers such as Yoti, is an effective way to check age and age ranges, such as over 18, with an appropriate threshold. Yoti is named as the most accurate facial age estimation provider for 13-16 year olds, a key age group that regulators are most concerned with to help keep children safe online. The ACCS also reports that Yoti’s Mean Absolute Error (MAE) for 18 year olds is just 1.05 years, demonstrating our continued effort to improve the performance of this technology.
Agile regulation
Deliver an agile approach to regulation, ensuring the framework is robust in monitoring and tackling emerging harms – such as AI generated content – and increases friction for technologies which enable online harm.
In their third priority, the Government has recognised that regulation needs to be more agile and flexible, to keep pace with the constantly changing digital landscape. The new Government is looking closely at provisions in the Online Safety Act and the timelines for enforcement.
They’ve already been proactive in this area; earlier this year the Government made the offence of sharing intimate images without consent a ‘priority (criminal) offence’ under the Online Safety Act. This means platforms will have to proactively prevent this content from appearing, not just take steps to remove this material if published.
Requiring consent before intimate content is published will help protect innocent people from revenge porn or from their image being used in deepfake content. The combination of a selfie authenticated esignature, identity verification, face matching and 18+ age checks ensures responsible platforms can check that the individuals in nude videos and images are the correct person, aged 18+ and give consent for publication.
It is encouraging that the Draft Statement of Strategic Priorities from the Government says, “We will support Ofcom in continuing to develop its understanding of these technologies through sharing knowledge and growing the evidence-base, so that it can create a space for continued ambition in age assurance technologies.”
Often, technological innovations outpace regulation. As safety tech continues to innovate and find solutions for online harms, we hope that there is a sharing mechanism across UK regulators to review science, data and evidence-based results – spanning all UK regulators – including Ofcom, the ICO, the Home Office and the Gambling Commission. This will be crucial for ensuring the latest safety tech can be used consistently across sectors and create safer online environments.
Technology and innovation
Foster the innovation of online safety technologies to improve the safety of users and drive growth.
The fifth and final priority is supporting the development of more effective age assurance technologies. The Government has said that “while age assurance solutions exist, the government recognises the importance of continued innovation to maximise their effectiveness, as well as consistent standards for these technologies.”
The Government would like Ofcom’s regulatory approach to “promote the development of age assurance technologies to improve child safety outcomes, particularly with regard to identifying children of different age groups to deliver age-appropriate online services, and create an environment where platforms deploy these technologies safely.’’
Peter Kyle has recognised the importance of a regulatory landscape that encourages innovation of age assurance solutions. This includes working to support standards on age assurance technologies, including standards for accuracy. This is particularly important as the accuracy of certain age assurance solutions, such as facial age estimation, continues to improve. We welcome the fact the Minister is pointing to the science and encouraging Ofcom to be abreast of the global developments in age assurance.
It is also encouraging to see that the Minister is keen for the UK Government and Ofcom to be forward-leaning in positioning the UK as a leading contributor in global discussions, encouraging discourse and collaboration domestically while actively participating in international fora, including the Global Online Safety Regulators Network and International Working Group on Age Verification.
We hope that this scrutiny from the Minister will lead to evidence-based regulatory decisions and recognition of the maturity of facial age estimation and digital ID as highly effective for +/- 13 age gating.
To learn more about our age assurance solutions, please get in touch.
