Meta recently agreed to improve how it verifies the age of users of its platforms such as Facebook and Instagram as part of an $18 billion legal settlement with U.S. states aimed at curbing children's use of social media.
Here is a look at what Meta said it will do to ensure that users are as old as they say they are, and some of the legal issues that could complicate age checks.
How did Meta previously determine user ages?
Meta policy bars children under 13 from using Facebook or Instagram and permits teenagers to use the platforms with some limits on content. Meta acknowledged that younger users sometimes lie about their ages when creating accounts, and the company is facing increasing pressure from countries around the world to limit children's access to social media.
Meta did not previously ask users for proof of age such as a photo ID. Instead the company said it looks at contextual clues, like birthday posts or celebrations of school grades, to identify accounts being used by children.
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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified in February that age verification would be more effective if it was handled by makers of mobile devices, an approach taken by a Texas state law that requires people under 18 to get parental consent before downloading an age-restricted app onto their device.
Meta agreed to the multistate settlement, announced on Aug. 26, to resolve legal claims that it designed social media platforms to addict children.
What changes are now required?
The settlement requires Meta to make broad changes related to users under 18, such as setting daily usage limits and disabling push notifications at night. It also calls for stronger age checks for young users, but it does not require
Meta to take strict verification steps such as checking the photo IDs of users or asking them to upload a video selfie.
The settlement focuses particular attention on age checks for children below age 13, requiring Meta to take extra steps such as searching the friend networks of the accounts of the youngest users in an effort to identify and eliminate them. The company also must make it easier for social media users to report suspected children's accounts, and it allows an independent auditor to review Meta's efforts to check ages.
The settlement allows Meta to temporarily use some data generated by children it identifies in order to train an AI model to detect under-13 users in the future, similar to its current approach for identifying the accounts of suspected teenagers.
What are the legal hurdles in determining ages?
Meta described both legal and practical roadblocks to stricter age assurance, including a 1998 federal law called the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA. This statute holds companies liable for damages if they collect personal data from children under age 13 without parental consent.
Meta and other social media companies argue this law puts them in a bind because it restricts them from collecting from children the kind of data that would reliably verify a person's age, such as IDs, biometric information or detailed records of their online activity.
Experts who advocate for better protections for children online say social media companies use COPPA as a distraction to avoid taking responsibility for allowing children onto their platforms.
Does the settlement address children's privacy?
The $18 billion settlement, as well as a $942 million judgment in a New Mexico court case on Aug. 6, attempt to thread the needle, requiring more proactive age-verification measures without triggering potential violations of COPPA.
In New Mexico, the judge concluded that the online-privacy law restricted him from ordering Meta to ask children to submit personal data or be passively tracked online, and said that strict age-verification requirements could put Meta at an unfair disadvantage to social media competitors.
The judge ordered changes intended to improve age assurances "within the limits of COPPA."
The most recent settlement uses a similar approach.
The Federal Trade Commission, which enforces COPPA for the U.S. government, issued a policy statement in February that it would not take action against any company that collects personal information for the sole purpose of determining a user's age via age-verification technologies.
Legal experts say the FTC policy provides only a partial shield for companies because U.S. states have their own authority to enforce COPPA violations even when the FTC declines to do so.
Several states sued Meta, alleging online-privacy violations, but dropped those claims as part of the settlement.
