The US games censor, the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) has been working on a facial recognition tool to verify gamers' ages and this method was submitted to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for approval. In a blog post, the FTC
has just announced that it was denying the company's application for the technology. The FTC stated that it denied the application in a vote of 4-0, noting that it received over 350 comments on the issue before the vote. As the FTC notes, those who
opposed the application cited privacy, protections, accuracy, and deepfakes as concerns. Had the application been approved, the FRC would have added the facial age detection tech to the list of acceptable forms of receiving parental consent for
collecting information from minor-aged users under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). This Act requires parental consent for the collection or use of personal data for users under the age of 13. Last year, the ESRB partnered
with the digital identity firm Yoti and SuperAwesome to create this technology to verify users' ages. The ESRB claimed it was not meant to identify individuals outright but rather estimate the user's age and stated it would not store the data after the
analysis concluded. However age companies offering facial age estimation also offer facial recognition, so users would have to somehow trust big tech companies (or national authorities) not to identify users. And let's face it, such institutions haven't
proved themselves to be very trustworthy in the past. While the FTC rejected the proposal, it said that ESBR could re-file the application in the future,presumably after improvements to the system. | 
