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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Josh Taylor Technology reporter

Google age ID proposal may not suit Australia’s under-16 social media ban, expert says

Google app logo
Google allows ID passes in its wallet app in the UK and US, and announced in February it was testing a ‘machine learning-based age estimation model’ to determine whether a user is under or over 18. Photograph: Matt Rourke/AP

Google is considering allowing people to store and share identification documents such as their passport or driver’s licence on their phone, as part of the Australian government’s test of technologies to enforce the upcoming social media ban for under 16s.

But while the proposed system will likely offer benefits for adults who have access to identification, it will probably be less useful for identifying teenagers without ID documents, raising questions about how helpful the technology would be for the ban.

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