On March 2, the National Assembly approved a bill aimed at better defining the numerical majority. If the text is validated after the approval of the Senate, any registration of an adolescent under 15 (and over 13) on a social network (Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, etc.) must be accompanied by parental consent.
In its first version, the text only referred to the creation of new accounts. But during the debates an amendment arrived to enrich its scope: as it stands, these same platforms will also have to obtain “express authorization” from parents for accounts “already created and maintained by minors” under 15 years of age.
retroactive scope
This addition, which gives retroactive effect to the text, was unanimously approved and supported by the government. Result: all social networks will have to identify users under 15 years of age… and therefore verify the age of all French users. And this within the two years following the promulgation of the law.
But as the LFI deputy Ségolène Amiot pointed out, this text is not accompanied by any “real operational solution”, since it leaves it to Arcom (ex-CSA) and the Cnil to find a solution to verify the age that is reliable and respectful of privacy. .
A debate reminiscent of that of the protection of young Internet users against online pornographic content, again with the key to a technical impasse in age verification procedures.
New challenge
Because the Cnil did not wait for the vote on this law by numerical majority to work on the issue. On July 26, 2022, the Commission published an extensive file mentioning existing solutions, excluding -for privacy reasons- the fact of sharing your identity card or passport directly with Facebook, TikTok and others.
As in the debate on access to pornography, the solution could be through the use of a third-party service, attesting to the age of the Internet user, paving the way for many companies to want to attack the verification market. old.
To keep their Facebook, Instagram or Twitter account, the French would have to prove their age to a third-party company, specialized in the field of age verification or already known, such as their telephone operator.
In his opinion, one of the possible scenarios is the retouching of the text, whose scope and sanctions (up to 1% of the global turnover of platforms reluctant to set up a tool of this type) could be considered disproportionate. Thus, the law could be censured by the Constitutional Council, but also by the European Commission, as could soon be the case for book delivery fees on Amazon.
If this idea makes it to the end, this giant age verification operation should prove to be a particularly costly and time-consuming challenge for social media. For their part, Arcom and Cnil would be forced to define and validate a method that is as reliable as a protector of personal data. A unique challenge in the world.
Source: BFM TV
