There must be a point to age checks online
We need to build safety into digital products, include young people in their design, and encourage platforms to compete on trust.
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Platforms must go further by embedding safety into the design of their products, says the writer.
PHOTO: ST FILE
Roy Ka-Wei Lee
A 14-year-old opens a social media app after school. The platform verifies the age and automatically places the teenager’s account in a private setting – a process known as “age assurance”.
That is a useful safeguard. On Instagram, for example, a teen account can, by default, limit who may send messages, restrict sensitive content, filter offensive words, remind the user to take breaks and mute notifications overnight. These settings show what age-appropriate design can look like. But age assurance does not, on its own, ensure that every aspect of the user experience has been designed with young people’s safety in mind.