Meta is adopting a new age-checking system that promises to streamline how the social media group and its billions of users adapt to the proliferation of new child protection regulations around the world.
The parent of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp is working with Singapore-based company K-ID to integrate the start-up’s AgeKey technology into its apps, with plans to roll it out across multiple countries next year.
Meta’s move marks a key step for the internet sector towards agreeing a single interoperable standard for age verification, at a time when the UK, Australia and several US and EU states are introducing or considering new regulations to curtail teenagers’ access to adult or harmful content.