Snapchat: the verification tools do not stop underage children from joining the application: The Standard

Snapchat acknowledged that its age verification tools were not working and that minor children had been able to sign up for the application.
Addressing MPs today, Snapchat said some of its current processes could not completely prevent children under the age of 13 from signing up for the application.
According to the results, Snapchat says the government is working on creating a new age verification system that could be used on all platforms to prevent underage children from gaining access inappropriate content and services.
Snapchat's administrators were appearing for the first time before the House of Commons Special Committee on Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), where they were also asked if its features of Streaks were fueling an addictive use of the application.
When questioned, the senior director of the firm for international public policy, Stephen Collins, acknowledged that in some cases his age verification processes "were not working".
"What we need is a robust and functioning age verification system that we work hard with the Home Office and the other agencies that are badociated with it to create this system, "he said.
"We have to raise our hands and be honest.Everyone working in the internet business will tell you that it is not possible to have a surefire way to keep the under 13 years away from any platform. "
Ian Lucas, committee member and MP for Wrexham, described the situation as "unacceptable".
"You're responsible for Snapchat, you're in charge of the age verification system and it does not work with the popular Snapchat registration method," he said.
"Our constituents are asking us a lot of problems regarding children and the impact of social media, and age verification is really important."
The application, which counts 186 million daily active users, was also asked about its policy of sharing data with law enforcement.
Earlier this month, Snapchat was criticized by Premier Theresa May after refusing to cooperate directly with the police in a new investigation following online grooming, rape and murder of Breck Bednar, 14 years old.
Instead, the company said the application should be processed via the United States.
Collins said that since the company's data controller was American, he had to comply with US law and could not cooperate directly with the UK police.
He said that there were "exceptional cases", such as incidents related to terrorism, the badual exploitation of children and an imminent threat to life, in which the l company "would act in good faith and respond directly to requests".
However, he added that the current legal framework for mutual badistance between the United Kingdom and the United States was a "very slow process" and that it "frustrated everyone".
The company also defended its design as a platform, claiming that unlike other applications such as Facebook and Twitter, it did not create a dependency cycle that caused constant scrolling and checking of news feeds.
Will Scougal, director of Snapchat's creative strategy, said, "There is a fundamental difference between how we position ourselves and how the application is built and the platforms you could instinctively compare to. "
He added that unlike other platforms, which open to feeds and encourage users to consume, Snapchat "opens up to the camera" and encourages users to share only with their close friends.
"In reality, we do not see ourselves as a social network, because it's not a multi-content experience, but a content validation experience – it's more about communicating with fewer people than you really know – and it's more of a conversation than a broadcast platform. "
However, the directors acknowledged the concerns voiced by MPs about the Streaks feature of the application, a series of emoticons indicating the frequency with which two friends talk to each other regularly about the service.
In response to the suggestions of the committee that they had heard that functionality would become a pressure tool to measure friendships, Mr. Collins stated that it was a "fair comment" and that that the platform would review the functionality again.

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