Age verification services are often deployed on websites that host sensitive or prohibited content, such as alcohol and tobacco products; adult entertainment; and, increasingly, social media. Companies that provide age verification, age gating, age assurance, or age estimation services employ one or more techniques designed to verify that web users fall within an allowable age range: ID document scans, biometric facial scans, and voice recognition, for instance. This study is part of a larger research agenda seeking to understand the quality, costs, and effectiveness of age verification from many perspectives. This study in particular seeks to understand the efficacy and robustness of these services.
To that end, study participants will be asked to use a series of masks, disguises, and modified ID documents to test the robustness of these systems. All materials used for testing will be provided by the research team -- you'll only need to bring yourself!
Research personnel include graduate students and faculty affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton University, and Carnegie Mellon University. We are in communication with Princeton University’s Office of the General Counsel (OGC) and the BU/MIT Law Clinic to ensure that the ID-verification portion of our study meets legal and ethical standards.