ESRB pushes back on speculation around its facial age estimation application

destructoid.com:

Recently, the ESRB and digital identity firm Yoti filed an application to the FTC. The application details a design for “Facial Age Estimation,” used to guess the age of users using the front-facing camera of a cell phone. Reports of this application soon followed, speculating that the ESRB might use this technology to scan children’s faces and verify their ages.

However, the ESRB recently responded to these statements, saying it would not be used for this reason. Instead, the ratings board says this tech is going to be used for parental consent when signing up for new games.

In an email sent to IGN, the ESRB clarifies the claims being made about their application for “Facial Age Estimation.”

For those unfamiliar, the program allows users to scan their faces with their cellphones, in a similar manner to unlocking your phone with a scan. Reports about this application speculated that it might scan children’s faces to verify their age, before they tried to purchase an age-restricted title. However, the ESRB has come out saying this would be used as part of the parental consent process, clarifying this in an email to IGN:

“First and foremost, this application is not to authorize the use of this technology with children. Full stop. Nor does this software take and store ‘selfies’ of users or attempt to confirm the identity of users. Furthermore, this application makes no mention of using age estimation to prevent children from purchasing and/or downloading restrictively rated video games, nor do we intend to recommend its use in that way.“

The ESRB continues its email by claiming that the “verifiable parental consent mechanism” is only to be used by parents as an alternative to previous methods. This will not use any