The Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) has proposed the use of facial recognition technology as a means of age verification. The ESRB wants FTC approval to use AI facial age estimation tech to verify a user’s age when buying or accessing digital games.
This technology (officially called Privacy-Protective Facial Age Estimation) is co-developed with digital identity company Yoti along with Epic Games subsidiary SuperAwesome. The way it works is that the user takes a live photo of their face, and the system uploads it to Yoti’s server where the image is analyzed by the system AI for age verification.
The proposal states that “Images are immediately, permanently deleted, and not used by Yoti for training purposes,” and adds that “To the extent that there is any risk, it is easily outweighed by the benefits to consumers and businesses of using this [Facial Age Estimation] method.”
The ESRB plans to implement this method as “an additional, optional verification method” rather than a replacement for current age verification methods.
The FTC is now seeking public comment on the proposal, and anyone can give feedback from now through August 21 over on federalregister.gov.
Featured image via PC Gamer.