Report from Channel News Asia
In Brief – Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), the country’s digital and media regulator, has announced that app stores will soon be required to protect children from inappropriate apps through age verification measures. The new rules under the Code of Practice for Online Safety for App Distribution Services will take effect on March 31. Designated app stores, those with significant reach or impact, including the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, Huawei App Gallery, Microsoft Store, and Samsung Galaxy Store, will have to implement “system-level measures” to curtail the risk of exposure to harmful content for users, especially children. Under the code, categories of harmful conduct include sexual content, violent content, cyberbullying, promoting suicide and self-harm, and endangering public health. The IMDA’s fact sheet notes that governments worldwide, including Australia, the European Union, the UK, and the US, are introducing measures to ensure online services are age-appropriate for children and teens. The new Singaporean regime allows the app store providers to use systems for “age estimation” to determine the likely age of a user, such as through machine learning or facial age analysis, “age verification” that uses sources of identification such as a digital ID or credit card, or a combination of techniques. If a covered app store platform claims that it is unable to meet the March 31 deadline, they must reach agreement with the IMDA on an acceptable compliance plan and timeline, starting with blocking young people from apps for users 18 and above.
Context – As the IMDA noted, online age verification mandates look primed to spread. Australia’s legislation requiring social media platforms to set and enforce a minimum age of 16 made global news and many countries, including in Asia, are looking at versions of age floors, especially for online pornography and social media. Meta has been especially vocal arguing that the app stores, especially those linked to top device manufacturers, are best situated to enforce age verification.