"Child Flag" system essential to safeguard teens against AR/VR: Report

Online platforms and device manufacturers should be obliged to implement a system that "flags" children who try to access age-restricted augmented and virtual reality content, according to a paper released on Monday by a technology think tank based in Washington, D.C. 

According to a report by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, Congress should mandate that manufacturers of devices and online platforms that host content that is restricted to users of a certain age set up a "child flag" system that permits these platforms to safely presume that users are adults unless they have been marked as children. 

 It went on to say that device manufacturers should incorporate the child flag system into the parental controls of their operating systems and that websites and apps that distribute information that is age-restricted ought to scan for the system's signal before delivering any content. 

“The flag system is flexible,” said the report’s author, policy analyst Juan Londoño. “It gives parents the option of marking a device as a child’s own device.” 

“It provides a middle ground that’s less invasive, less disruptive than ID mandates, and gives parents and users more tools to tackle online behavior,” Londoño told news reporters. 

According to the analysis, lawmakers' present strategy, which mostly focuses on enacting ID-based age-verification laws, is unlikely to keep teenagers safe and would instead worsen everyone's online experience, including adults and teens. 

They might also restrict free speech, jeopardize user privacy, and hinder the advancement of AR/VR and the metaverse. 

According to Londoño, "mandates can become a privacy liability, potentially for everyone, not just teen users." 

He went on, "If submitting your ID is required in order to use AR/VR services, that means someone has to gather, organize, and process that data." "That puts a target on the backs of the companies collecting the data, making them vulnerable to data theft," 

“Whenever you try to mandate controls over technology, there’s going to be a backlash to that from manufacturers,” added Ross Rubin, principal analyst at Reticle Research, a consumer technology advisory firm in New York City. 

He noted that enforcing age restrictions online largely lacks enforcement. “It’s become a cliche that to verify an ID on many websites is little more than checking a box,” he told news reporters, “but there are websites that do more stringent verification, such as requiring submission of a photo of your driver’s license.” 

The president and chief analyst of San Jose, California's SmartTech Research, Mark N. Vena, advised stakeholders in AR and VR to become more involved in self-regulation. 

He stated, "More research is needed on the experience type to understand the potentially negative impacts we're trying to protect against." 

 He continued, "I think one of the problems with kids using AR/VR or any new technology is that their brains are still developing, so the negative effects could be more severe than they would be in a fully formed, mature brain. 

Canopy's CMO, Yaron Litwin, concurred. Canopy makes tools and software to watch over kids' gadgets and internet behavior. 

"AR/VR is going to have a huge impact on society since a lot of kids are going to use these products, and with the wrong material, it could have a devastating negative effect,” Vena added. 

A long list of risks that AR and VR present to adults and teenagers is provided in the ITIF paper. Threats that are specific to teenagers include inappropriate content exposure, cyberbullying, virtual harassment, sexual predation, unhealthy abuse of technology, and gambling addiction.  

Londoño stated, "The dangers children will encounter in the metaverse are already present in social media and the internet in general." "However, those threats have a bigger impact on users because of how they are perceived through AR/VR." "The metaverse will inherit them if we don't address them," he continued. 

Rubin concurred. "Because of the increased level of interaction and potential emotional impact, you're taking many of the worries already present about teens and social media and adding to them."