How social media companies determine which users are kids

Determining which accounts belong to children is the linchpin of online child safety measures that Meta, Google, TikTok, Roblox and other companies are ramping up as public and regulatory sentiment increasingly turns against them. As countries like Australia, the U.K and France are enacting or planning bans on social media for young teens and legal and regulatory pressure builds for tech platforms to do more to protect kids from online harms, most major platforms have announced ways they are trying to strengthen online age checks. But the fact remains that online age verification technology remains imperfect, while coming with privacy implications not just for children but for adults who maybe have to prove that they are over 18.