The Intervention Journey A Roadmap to Effective Digital Safety Measures 2025

k-ID launched a global compliance engine that enables online publishers and platforms to incorporate Safety by Design. Powered by a first- of-its-kind compliance database and on-device facial age estimation technology, k-ID automatically adjusts game settings based on local laws and enables features to be tailored to each child’s age or digital maturity level. For families, k-ID developed a cross-platform, unified set of parental management tools to help guide kids and teens anywhere in the world to privacy-preserving, age-appropriate online experiences. This intervention not only focuses on technical safety measures but also incorporates educational and behavioural strategies to empower both parents and children in the digital age. Identification k-ID identified several critical online harms that pose significant risks, including threats to personal and community safety, harm to mental health and well-being, exposure to hate and discrimination, violations of privacy, and deception through manipulation.8 These issues are particularly pressing as children increasingly spend time online, often on platforms that lack age-appropriate safety measures. Recent studies show that 86% of children aged 6-12 have access to digital devices,9 and 60% of children aged 8-12 use platforms despite age restrictions.10 Partnerships with child safety organizations provided insights into the latest trends and risks in online harms, particularly those that are prevalent in social media and games. Many platforms, while claiming to be for users aged 13 and over or 16 and over, are accessed by underage users, often with parental consent to misrepresent their age. Complex and inconsistent definitions of “child” – ranging from 7 to 21 years old across jurisdictions – make uniform compliance challenging. Furthermore, non-compliance is increasingly risky, with fines increasing tenfold in the last three years compared to the previous 20, and the associated costs of investigations and consent decrees being even more burdensome. The high costs associated with legal, compliance and engineering efforts to create and maintain comprehensive safety systems represent another significant risk. These costs are a major barrier, particularly for smaller platforms that may view these systems as cost centres. Current transaction- based verification processes make large-scale safety checks impractical due to costs, leading to inconsistent verification and significant safety gaps. This underscores the need for scalable, cost-effective solutions that simplify integration across multiple platforms and reduce ongoing engineering costs. Design To address these risks, k-ID developed a technical solution that automatically configures game settings based on a child’s age and location. This approach also allows parents to tailor their child’s online experiences according to their digital maturity, enabling them to gradually introduce more complex or interactive features as their child becomes ready. This is complemented by policy-based interventions, such as compliance with local regulations regarding online child safety and educational strategies aimed at empowering parents and children. k-ID’s privacy-preserving, on-device age estimation technology ensures accurate age verification without exporting any biometric data, complying with regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and protecting user privacy. 2.2 Safeguarding young gamers: a tailored gaming solution Feedback, measurement and transparency Regarding the measurement of the intervention, Microsoft is still in the process of building its understanding of the toolkit’s impact. Measuring the success of educational and behavioural interventions is always a challenging prospect. As outlined in the coalition’s paper Making a Difference: How to Measure Digital Safety Effectively to Reduce Risks Online, the difficulty is due to a number of factors including the dynamic nature of technological advances, the diverse array of digital products and services, the concurrent evolution of harmful behaviours, the vast volume of content and the contextual or subjective nature of certain types.7 However, as proxy measures, Microsoft has been able to track downloads of the toolkit in different countries, engagement with the communications campaigns and qualitative feedback from stakeholders. k-ID automatically adjusts game settings based on local laws and enables features to be tailored to each child’s age or digital maturity level. The Intervention Journey: A Roadmap to Effective Digital Safety Measures 16