Protecting minors in the digital age has become a paramount concern for both parents and policymakers. A January 2022 survey conducted in the United States revealed that 54% of female respondents and 50% of male respondents strongly support social media companies requiring users to verify their identity before creating a profile. Only a small fraction, three percent of women and five percent of men, strongly opposed this measure. These statistics underscore the growing consensus on the need for streamlined age verification solutions for digital platforms which obviously shows the importance of verification systems to ensure the safety and security of young users online.
Let’s explore what exactly age verification is, the diverse methods for age authentication solutions, and the potential industries in which it is usually employed.
What is Digital Age Verification?
Age verification solutions are the ultimate sources for verifying users during remote onboarding in potential enterprises where the age limitation is defined for getting access to the acquired services. There are potential industries of gaming and gambling, dating websites, alcohol, and tobacco where it is necessary to confirm a customer’s age just to comply with the regulatory body. In this advanced era, younger children are trying to get involved in activities that are considered illegal according to their age. Therefore, the government and relevant authorities have proposed ways to resolve this issue.
Diverse Protocols for Age Verification Solutions
Age validation checks are the prompt ways to authenticate customer’s identities through their government-issued credentials. Organizations check out the customer’s actual age by getting validation through different sources such as authorized databases, identity credentials, passports, ID cards, social security information, etc. Age verification regulations defined by the government authorities have limited the access of minors to services of digital media publishing adult content, alcohol and beverages products, and involvement in gambling. Age verification solutions provide a variety of ways to provide secure age verification. Some of the methods are given below through which customers can conveniently authenticate their age credentials:
Credit Card Check
Another method for authenticating customers’ identities is the assistance of credit numbers. For example, Google uses it to authenticate customers’ age and allow them to use age-restricted products and services. The main objective of utilizing this method is users do not have to provide their personal credentials such as ID details etc.
Photo Check
Potential companies can authenticate the age of their customers by utilizing machine learning models based on the photo. The system compares the photo of their employees with the database, which stores the authentic information against it, such as name, address, age, etc.
Self-Declaration
Self-declaration is another way of confirming the age of the onboarded individuals or the customers in the companies who are acquiring their desired services. The simplest way is to directly ask the age of the customer through form filling manually or digitally. The potential problem that can arise is that users can lie about it. However, this method of verification can easily be integrated into the system with low-risk use cases and by no means in the regulated industries.
ID Document Check
Online identity document check is one of the most considered methods to authenticate customers due to their accurate results. This advanced system employs OCR techniques to examine scanned copies of credentials thoroughly. The tools and technologies used in the OCR system extract data from the documents and thus determine the person’s age by the date of birth mentioned in the credentials.
Potential Industries Employing Age Identification Services
Age verification solutions provide services in multiple industries due to their diversity, which ensures customer confirmation. Some of the major sectors that need the age verification solutions are given below:
Alcohol and Tobacco
The buying and selling of alcohol and tobacco is legal in most countries. But it’s selling to minors is prohibited due to severe consequences. If someone is found to be involved in doing so, it would lead to the cancellation of the license, and they have to pay heavy fines and then receive a warning to be in prison. Therefore, the regulation of online age verification in the companies leads to the maintenance of the integrity of the system.
Pharmaceuticals
Most of the high-potency drugs can only be distributed to adults to protect against health concerns. But these regulations vary from country to country.
Gambling and Gaming
Many countries don’t allow kids to join gambling and online gaming sites. This keeps them safe from problems like gambling addiction. Therefore, age verification solutions should be integrated into such departments.
Adult Materials
Age verification is necessary to prevent minors who haven’t reached the age of consent from accessing adult content.
Final verdict
Age verification solutions are the ultimate approach, and the need of the hour is to stop the younger generation from the adverse effects of age-restricted products, as described earlier in detail. Potential merchants have a major responsibility to secure young ones’ access to age-restricted products. To overcome this and comply with the regulations, it is mandatory for each system to have a valid verification system installed to fortify integrity. It would not only increase the reliability of the industry but would be helpful for protecting minors from illegal approaches in this advanced era.
