Intellicheck CEO: Parents, Platforms and Legislation Critical for Age Verification as TikTok Comes Back Online

TikTok’s existential crisis is seemingly over — the platform went dark for only a matter of hours this past weekend.

And so, the millions of creators and viewers around the world have resumed their love affair with the social media platform. 

While the ultimate fate of TikTok will be determined over the course of the next several weeks and months, some of the issues confronting the platform are still front and center — and indeed, are concerns for just about any platform operating in the present day: Verifying the age of its users. 

TikTok stands out, given the fact that the minimum age to sign on and create an account is 13, and content creators/posters must be at least 16 years old … and yet, depending on where one looks, a significant percentage of actual users fall below the minimum thresholds. The hurdle is relatively low, as would-be account holders simply provide their birth dates to gain access to TikTok.

Bryan Lewis, CEO of Intellicheck, told Karen Webster that there’s not enough protection in place when it comes to vetting individuals, and by extension, helping businesses (who depend on sites like TikTok and others to generate sales and subscribers) ensure their end users are legitimate. 

“You can name so many websites,” he told Webster, “whether it’s TikTok or a gun manufacturer, alcohol or pornography site … so many of them just say, ‘Are you 18 or over’ or ‘Are you 13 and over? Click this button.’ There’s no proof.”

The negative ripple effects of the low barrier to entry are significant. Lewis recounted that youngsters have gained access to content, misinformation and disturbing presentations — videos and messages and opinions — that are in fact damaging to psyches that have yet to be fully formed. Kids’ anxiety and mental health issues have skyrocketed as a result. 

“If we really want to protect our youth,” said Lewis, “we need to make sure we know who they are.”  That’s easier said than done, given the fact that tech-savvy kids are especially adept at creating hordes of email addresses and new identities to keep coming “back in” to the platforms even when they’ve been found out and denied access.

The successful approach, he said, is tied to a collaborative one, as parents and platforms work together to ensure appropriate access on the part of minors. The Child Online Privacy Protection Act, which traces its roots back to 2000, offers some foundation here — as it requests parental consent for the collection and use of their kids’ data. But Lewis added that the act took shape in an age when the technologies of today — deepfakes and AI — could scarcely have been imagined. It’s become easier than ever to present fake IDs (and driver’s licenses) online. 

The overarching principle, Lewis said, should be this one when it comes to verifying younger digital users: “Let’s make it a little bit difficult,” for those customers, “because, to me, it’s worth it for the protection.” 

There are various ways to get there, he said — including taking a picture of one’s face and leveraging facial analysis technology that determines an age “range” for verification. There’s the driver’s license online verification, and then there’s credit card authorization. But many of those methods take time — measured in minutes or days — that simply proves too cumbersome in the 21st century that demands instant processes, or merchants and platforms risk abandonment.

“If it’s three minutes, 30 minutes, three days,” Lewis said, “well, that does not work in eCommerce. It all has to be instantaneous and it all has to be accurate. Otherwise you’re annoying your client base and losing good customers.”

A triangulation of those approaches, Lewis said, can work well, as would requiring explicit parental controls.

And in addition, he said, “There are different age blocks that we probably should have — 13 to 16 and 18 to 21” that require different levels of friction before access is granted.

Asked by Webster what the new Congress and presidential administration should do over the long term, Lewis maintained state and federal laws need to change and that the mantra should be “prove, prove prove … trust but verify.”

As he told Webster, with a nod toward TikTok and others: “We’ll have better platforms, better content — and safer content.”

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