Apple to introduce new method for children's age verification

Apple announced on Thursday that it will introduce a new method for parents to share their child's age with app developers without disclosing sensitive details like birthdays or government identification numbers. This move comes as U.S. lawmakers, both at the state and federal levels, are considering age-verification laws for social media and other apps.

Several states, including Utah and South Carolina, are currently debating legislation that would require app store operators, such as Apple and Google, to verify the ages of users. This has sparked a debate within the tech industry over who should be responsible for verifying the ages of users under 18—app stores or individual apps.

Meta, for example, has long advocated for legislation that would require app stores to verify users' ages when a child attempts to download an app.

In its statement on Thursday, Apple expressed its reluctance to take on the responsibility of collecting sensitive data for age verification. "Although only a small number of apps on the App Store may require age verification, all users would have to provide sensitive personal data to us—whether or not they actually plan to use one of these apps," Apple wrote in a whitepaper posted on its website.

As an alternative, Apple plans to introduce a feature called "age assurance." Through this system, parents can input their child's age when setting up an account. The parent can then choose to share a "declared age range" (rather than an exact birthdate or other identifying information) with third-party app developers. Parents will also have the option to disable age-range sharing.

"This approach protects privacy by allowing parents to maintain control over their child's sensitive personal information, while minimizing the data shared with third parties," Apple stated.

In response, Meta spokeswoman Stephanie Otway called Apple's new technology "a positive first step" but noted that it still requires children to share an age range with developers, which could complicate Meta's ability to implement the system effectively.

"Parents have told us they want to have the final say over the apps their teens use, which is why we support legislation requiring app stores to verify a child's age and obtain parental approval before allowing them to download an app," Otway said.

Currently, Apple's controls already require parental approval for children to download apps.