Key ICO resources and UK info/standards on age checking/assurance & the Children's Code are below.
ICO work to date on children's privacy and age estimation/verification:
- Measurement of age assurance technololgies, jointly commissioned with Ofcom under the Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum (DRCF), Aug 23 (previous report pt.1, Oct 22)
- ICO-approved certifications under UK GDPR in 2021 include (news release)
- Age Check Certification Scheme (ACCS) testing age assurance products work (tech requirements ACCS 2:2021)
- Age Appropriate Design Certification Scheme (AADCS) criteria for age appropriatedesign of information society services (tech requirements ACCS 3:2021)
- (I mention this first as many people don't seem to know about them)
- Evaluation report on Children's Code & summary, Mar 23
- Response to the Call for Evidence and roundtables on age assurance, Feb 23
- Age assurance opinion, Oct 21
- Seers Child Privacy Consent Management Platform (CPCMP) sandbox report, Oct 21
- Yubo Age Appropriate Design Code Audit Report, Oct 22
- Yoti age estimation tech for younger children sandbox report, Apr 22 & its AADC audit, Dec 21
- Age-AppropriateDesign Code itself
Also relevant:
- European Commission's age assurance tool, May 24
- Ofcom's Quick guide to children’s access assessments, Protecting children from harms online Volume 5: What should services do to mitigate the risks of online harms to children?, section 15 Age assurance measures, and Ofcom's Annex 10 A10. Draft guidance on highly effective age assurance, May 24
- Ofcom's Guidance on age assurance and other Part 5 duties for service providers publishing pornographic content on online services (under UK Online Safety Act 2023), Dec 23
- UK's 2022 trials of age verification technology in alcohol sales - interestingly, several using Yoti's age estimation tech - mostly facial, some ID documents, one biometric finger vein
- PAS 1296:2018 Online age checking. Provision and use of online age check services Code of Practice and tech requirements ACCS 4:2020 for checks based on that
- IEEE Standard for an Age Appropriate Digital Services Framework Based on the 5Rights Principles for Children, Nov 21
Added May/June 2024:
- European Commission-commissioned research report Mapping age assurance typologies and requirements Mapping age assurance typologies and requirements (news, exec summaryexec summary), Apr 24
- ICO Age assurance for the Children's Code, Jan 24