The FTC is seeking comment on an application from the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), along with companies Yoti and SuperAwesome, for a new way to obtain "parental consent" under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) Rule.

The application seeks the FTC's approval to use "Privacy-Protective Facial Age Estimation" (Facial Age Estimation) technology as a new way to obtain "verifiable parental consent" under COPPA (Section 312.5(b)(1)). The Facial Age Estimation technology would analyze a scan of a user's face to assess their facial geometry, in order to ultimately determine whether they are an "adult." 

The companies' claim that the data collected is not technically "biometric information" because the "non-identifying age estimation" output that is created is not used to identify a specific person.

The FTC is seeking comment on whether this new technology poses a risk to consumers' personal information, and if so, whether that risk may be outweighed by the benefit to consumers. The FTC is also interested in hearing whether this proposed technology poses a risk of disproportionate error rates or other outcomes for particular demographic groups.

Comments will be due 30 days from publication in the Federal Register.