Update:
After a series of reports surfaced online pointing to concern over potential images of children being used to age verify a player, a new report from ESRB hopes to clarify things. We have since updated our article to reflect the new information supplied to IGN.
A new move is going on right now for the ESRB, which is seeking approval from the FTC. If approved, it could mean a new standard to check if a younger player has approval from their legal guardian. This report comes from Gamesindustry.biz, and it seems that the ESRB has a new means to keep children safe. But it’s not done in a way that would require an image of your child as most media outlets assumed.
According to the report, this move is still needing approval from the FTC to see if the ESRB can go through with this facial recognition technology. But if approved, then Yoti will be the firm that helps ensure the players are old enough to enjoy some of the video games being accessed by the individual. So those younger audience of players will still need the approval of their parent or legal guardian.
Previous reports, including ours, showed that this process would require an image from the user trying to access the game or software. As a result, concern quickly grew over the possibility that a child image might be required. However, that’s not actually the case. IGN recently had a statement from the ESRB going over the fact that this is not an application being used for children. There are no plans in place that would require a child to take a selfie and send it in for this approval process to work. Instead, it’s still centered around the parent or legal guardian.
According to the report made by IGN, the process once a child attempts to sign up for a service or video game will require a parent or legal guardian’s email address. This would then prompt the guardians to consent to their faces being scanned, which is used to estimate the parent’s age accurately. Again, images used are said to be removed afterward, so you won’t find your selfies being stored or used in any AI training. But again, this is if the Yoti technology is implemented.
It’s further noted that the age threshold to determine if the guardian is of legal age is set at 25. This is another measure to avoid any false approvals from teenagers and children attempting to disguise themselves as guardians. So if there was any worry that this service is looking to invade your child’s privacy, this might be a relief.
You can read the full statement provided by the ESRB at IGN. Meanwhile, we’ll continue to update this post with any other corrections that might come up.
