Child, Family & Development / Digital Child Protection
SUB-T02-003Age Assurance
Definition
Age Assurance is the systematic study and design of conditions, interventions and safeguards affecting children or families within digital child protection.
Why this matters
Children have evolving capabilities and limited power over many systems affecting them. Errors in age assurance can create developmental, relational, educational, health or safety consequences that persist.
Research questions
Which combinations of age assurance provide sufficient confidence while minimising data collection and exclusion?
Hypotheses
Tiered assurance matched to feature risk will produce better access and privacy outcomes than universal identity verification.
Proposed methods
mixed-method child-safety assurance programme using red-team simulation, incident and case review, age-stratified usability testing, survivor-informed design, operational pathway exercises and independent safeguarding review; adapted specifically to Age Assurance; child-appropriate participatory methods; caregiver and practitioner input; age-stratified analysis; validated developmental measures; service-pathway testing; safeguarding review; delayed or longitudinal follow-up; implementation-fidelity assessment
Stakeholders and beneficiaries
children; parents; carers; eSafety regulators; police; child-protection agencies; platforms; schools; helplines; civil-society organisations; age assurance specialists; lived-experience family advisory panel; independent child-rights reviewer