Parents Falsify Birth Dates to Create Social Media Accounts for Their Children

Readers' wide-ranging interaction with the Cabinet's recent decision on regulating children's access to social media platforms and setting a minimum age for use of 15 years.

The decision has raised several questions among the readers of Emarat Al Youm about digital age verification mechanisms, especially that some parents deliberately manipulate and falsify birth dates when creating electronic accounts for their children to bypass platform restrictions.

A cybersecurity and child protection expert confirmed to Emarat Al Youm that digital identity is the best, fastest and most private way to verify users' ages, suggesting that strict and immediate financial fines be imposed on any company that does not comply, in violation of international decisions in this area.

In detail, cybersecurity expert Sami A Nour stressed that social media platforms prohibit privacy settings for children under the age of 13 from entering, and prevent them from creating independent accounts unless parental control features do, but if there is legislation from the state, they comply with legal age requirements.

He pointed out that social media companies, including TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook, will be obliged to fully comply with the new legislation within the state within the 12-month deadline set to remedy the situation.

He added that the decision is not limited to popular platforms, but extends to all other apps operating in the country, such as dating, chat and live streaming apps, pointing out that some of them lack fundamentally mechanisms for controlling negative users and protecting children, and present content with unethical orientations that are inconsistent with the values, customs and traditions of the UAE society.

Sami A Nour explained that the new decision not only prohibits the creation of accounts, but also extends to preventing them from being used by children, which means that a child has no right to use any account even if it is registered with an adult or a parent.

He pointed out that the decision does not give a guardian the authority to allow his child (under 15 years) to use those platforms, and in the case of teenagers between 15 and 16 years old, Sami reported that the decision gave them limited use based on activating the parental control option, with a ban on tracking or using children's data and filtering any content through the algorithm and relying on the natural appearance of content such as followers or content built on the geographic environment. This excludes the positive use of the algorithm based on the prohibition of content disproportionate to that age according to the assets determined by the State concerned.

He pointed out that technically, social media adheres to several age verification controls, and while age could be manipulated with manual input, proof has now become a necessity, not an option.

The first method that the media uses is to scan biometric properties like faces, for example, which is an AI-automated estimate, and this estimate could fail if done individually as we've seen in many cases.

The second method is to use identity with facial scanning, where the data in the identity is read first, and the face is approached with the image in it, which is a more effective method, and this can be done through third parties authorized within the state, who are tasked with studying the account creation file and verifying its data.

He pointed out that according to the resolution, it is likely that digital identity will be used to prove age, as the law leaves an open space for any future technologies, and in my opinion is the best, fastest and most private way for users, where digital identity will allow social media companies, away from intermediaries, to verify age, without having to access other personal data. While the decision emphasizes the need to access and maintain only the necessary data sufficiently for the verification process while emphasizing the responsibility to protect it, the option of mitigating data access remains the optimal option in a data security system.

As for the requirements for 15- to 16-year-olds, Sami A Nour explains that companies have become obliged to provide parental control features, and most of the platforms they own, and no doubt the rest of the global companies will meet these standards in the specific transition period, and the fate of small social media owners remains unknown, they may not be able to meet these requirements. You will be barred from accessing UAE users whether they choose to or not.

These features of parental control require that they be able to limit negative content and set access times both day and night, and restrict communication activities by anonymous people. Social media has been mandated not to use age-specific children's data at all to allow for advertising purposes. Here we will see how these authorities will meet the requirements of this decision specifically, whether to stop advertising altogether or to show non-targeted public ads, That's the only question that doesn't have an answer right now.

For his part, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the UAE Association for Child Protection, Adviser Faisal Mohammed Al Shammari, praised the Cabinet's decision, noting that the UAE is thus the first Arab country to take this crucial regulatory action to protect the safety of children in the digital environment, describing it as an excellent strategic step, especially in line with the accelerating global trends and efforts in this regard.

Al-Shamri stressed that this decision complements the long history of the UAE's global leadership in child protection programmes against all risks, especially digital risks.

In this regard, he pointed out the membership of the State-Acting Virtual Global Force (VGT) represented by the Ministry of the Interior, and its influential international partnerships, stressing that the current stage requires building strong local partnerships at a broad national and regional level to ensure optimal implementation of the resolution.

Shamri pointed out that there are challenges in the application mechanism, which urgently require the development of advanced parental control possibilities, along with the launch of effective and sustainable awareness programs aimed at all segments of society to raise public awareness of the provisions of the decision and its protective objectives.

With regard to digital platforms that do not have legal headquarters or regional offices within the country and avoid accountability, the president of the UAE Association for Child Protection demanded that strict and immediate financial fines be imposed on any company that does not comply, in addition to international decisions made in the USA and the EU, which amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars.

It also proposed a complete immediate ban on the services of companies and platforms that do not comply with the resolution, and prohibiting the use of their channels completely for all ages within the state.

Regarding the phenomenon of parents opening accounts on social media for their children and circumventing by falsifying their birth dates, Shamri said: "Unfortunately, monitoring and follow-up mechanisms must be tightened, and some violations should be made clear to those who are not considered, through strict legal accountability for those who commit these actions".

He called on families, educational institutions and technicians to unite and work in the spirit of one team, to ensure that the texts of this resolution become a practical reality protecting future generations in the digital space.

He stressed the importance of linking accounts with digital identity (UAE PASS) to enable parental supervision services, and the use of AI agents in the development and operation of these services, both within the family and even at the level of law enforcement and regulatory authorities for the implementation of these laws, legislation and controls.

Requirements and restrictions

The Cabinet decision, on regulating children's access to social media platforms for 15-16 year olds, authorized the use of "social media", provided that their accounts are subjected to special protective measures including age-group classification, content restriction and high-risk disability.

The resolution also stipulates that the consent of the guardian is not to be counted as an exception to the prohibitions or restrictions imposed by it, and the platforms are required to apply effective and reliable mechanisms to verify the age of the user, and the decision requires social media platforms in the state, or addressed to an audience within the state, to suspend or disable the accounts of children under the age of 15 established in violation of the provisions of the resolution.

Source: Emarat Al Youm