In a concerning new study, it has been found that children are easily able to “bypass” the age verifications on social media platforms. It is impossible to hide from social media these days, it is everywhere. Social media is how a lot of people communicate, including children and teenagers.
There has been discussion if social media is a “safe space” for children, or if it is something that should be avoided. Parents have been kept at ease because they know there are age verifications that a person has to enter before being allowed to access these sites.
This may be a false sense of security, according to Study Finds. Researchers from Lero, the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software have found that it is easy for children to bypass any age verifications by simply, lying. The apps that were included in the study were Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Snapchat, TikTok, Messenger, Skype, and Discord.
Lero released their findings on their website, which you can view here, and it warned parents that they looked at the age verification process for these sites, and the findings were not good. Researchers looked at the processes in April of 2019 and April of 2020, and it led them to the conclusion that all children need to do is make an account and say that they are 16. The social media sites do not ask for any proof that a person is the age they are claiming, and they are said to be working off an “honor system,” by just assuming children will not lie.
The concern is that children being on these apps, without the supervision and knowledge of their parents, makes them vulnerable. They are vulnerable for cyber bullying, grooming and just exposure to content that may not be appropriate for them. The study found that if a child enters an app, and initially uses their real age, the apps will disable registration. If the user just makes up a birthday that equals 16 or above, the sites let them in with no questions asked, and no proof needed.
The research team even looked at some age recognition techniques, like voice recognition, that are used to try and verify that a user is putting in the correct age. However, even those proved to be easy to bypass by simply playing a voice recording of an older person. While the solution to the problem may not be clear at this time, what is clear is that something needs to change to protect children from accessing information that could be inappropriate and dangerous.
Sources: Study Finds, Lero