The Commissioner’s Opinion on Age Assurance for the Children’s code provides the ICO’s view on how the law applies and facilitates consistent, clear, predictable regulation to those who might seek to use age assurance to conform with the Children’s code (formally known as the Age appropriate design code).
Age-appropriate application is one of the 15 standards that make up the code. The standard requires information society services (ISS) to take a risk-based approach to recognising the age of their users. This is to ensure they can effectively apply the code’s standards to child users.
We know that age assurance technology and the market are developing rapidly, so we have also issued a call for evidence to further develop and maintain our knowledge in this area.
We’re looking for evidence including details on existing or proposed age estimation approaches, novel approaches to age assurance, systems where data protection by design has been applied and the type of economic impact of age assurance approaches.
We are seeking evidence on specific areas related to age assurance in the context of the Children’s code. We are not seeking evidence on uses of age assurance that are beyond this scope or that could not be adapted to support the aims of the code.
This will enable us to keep up with technological developments and deepen our understanding of how industry is responding to the Code and the requirement for age assurance. It will also ensure that the guidance and support we provide is relevant, and help us to regulate effectively and fairly.
The call for evidence will close on Tuesday 4 January 2022.