Conventional identification and authorization of users may include discretionary controls, such as an access control list managed per-item by the user, or a mandatory control such as a user clearance level, need-to-know, and item classification. Many of these processes are still performed manually. In the case of parents concerned with their child’s access to content on the Internet, this requires manual adjustment as a child grows and matures.

Microsoft’s latest published patent application suggests an evolution to these manual processes: an evolving security configuration, able to automatically adapt in stages as an account’s minor user grows from toddler, to young child, to pre-teen, and to a teenager. Using machine learning, the evolving security configuration is able to learn and adapt to address a multitude of parental security concerns.

Such a security system would give the parent’s child greater privileges and access over time as they mature. Running in parallel, a related account for the parent would automatically lose corresponding privileges, as authority over their child’s account shifts from the adult to the maturing child.

Microsoft remains the third largest holder of patents and patent applications for the AI Cybersecurity sector.