In today’s digital world, businesses should comply with age verification rules.
With governments and authorities throughout the world concentrating more on protecting minors online, organisations that fail to properly check their users’ ages face substantial legal and reputational implications.
In this blog, we will discuss the importance of age verification and how it can protect your business.
What is age verification?
Age verification is the process of determining a person’s age before allowing them to access age-restricted products, services, or content.
The process basically include gathering and verifying personal information or documents, such as a government-issued ID or credit card.
Age verification is widely used in businesses like online gambling, alcohol sales, tobacco goods, medical services, adult entertainment, and e-commerce to prevent minors from accessing age-restricted content.
But wait, it has been noticed that people often confuse age verification with age gating.
Though the two are not the same.
Then, what’s the difference?
Age gating is a method for restricting access to content, services, or products based on a user’s age; however, unlike age verification, which confirms an individual’s age, age gating only requires users to self-declare their age or date of birth (DOB) before accessing the restricted material.
Age gating consists of a pop-up or verification page where users enter their age or date of birth to prove that they meet a minimum age restriction. Because the user self-attests their age, no verification is performed to authenticate the individual’s age.
💡 Related Blog: How Fraudsters Leverage AI and Deepfakes for Identity Fraud
Age verification systems
There are several different ways to verify your age online.
Self-DeclarationÂ
This approach needs users to enter or declare their age or date of birth. It is widely used on social networking platforms and businesses that offer age-restricted products.Â
Self-declaration is available to all users and simply requires their active involvement.
It depends completely on the user’s honesty and makes no attempt to check the accuracy of the content. Users can readily misrepresent their age throughout the self-declaration process, rendering this method insecure for age verification.
Credit Card
Age verification with a credit card is intended to prevent people under the age of 18 from accessing age-restricted content and goods.Â
However, this strategy may eliminate people who do not have payment cards. Furthermore, children can readily circumvent this restriction by utilizing an adult’s card.Â
Physical document verification
Some sites may request that users verify their age by uploading and scanning government-issued physical IDs such as passports or driver’s licenses.
Although these IDs include the date of birth, uploading and scanning the document can be time-consuming.Â
Electronic identities
National electronic identities (eIDs) are equivalent to physical forms of identification. Age verification using eIDs is the most secure and convenient alternative. Companies can safely validate a person’s identification using eIDs, which always include their date of birth.
Benefits of Online Age Verification
Age verification system services can vary depending on regulatory requirements, jurisdiction, and product, but the best softwares like Signzy offer:
Automated processes for adjusting to various age restrictions across the nation.
Ability to keep an audit trail for compliance requirements.
Cross-border regulatory compliance eliminates the need for separate onboarding procedures.
For physical products such as alcohol, relying on delivery persons for age verification is risky, emphasizing the importance of a dependable online system.Â
An effective identity verification solution, which includes personally identifiable information (PII) as well as other data points such as email and phone data, can establish a customer’s identity with high trust, which is critical for companies that offer age-restricted products or services online.
Implementing a reliable age verification technology is both a compliance precaution and a strategy to protect minors while also maintaining the business integrity of age-restricted markets.Â
Why is age verification service required?
Age verification systems serve a number of vital tasks in the online marketplace, ranging from fundamental legal compliance to fraud prevention and minor protection.
Prevent fraud- Fraud protection is a key component of an age verification service. The smart software checks the submitted ID to public databases to guarantee validity, dramatically reducing fraudulent activity.
Comply with the Regulation- Compliance with legislation is another strong reason to install age verification systems. Regulatory authorities compel firms to extensively verify their customers’ ages, which applies to both physical shops and online platforms.
This is especially important in areas like tobacco, alcohol, and online gambling, where age limits are carefully enforced to keep children from engaging in potentially harmful activities.
How to implement age verification in your business
Age verification systems range from simple pop-ups to more complicated biometric procedures. There are no one-size-fits-all solutions. Each company determines the level and type of protection that is appropriate for its industry and jurisdiction.
However, if you are seeking for a reliable provider who can effortlessly integrate age verification best practices into your business processes, you have arrived to the correct spot.
Visit our website today to know more.
Signzy’s age verification solutions can assist you in meeting regulatory requirements, protecting your business from the majority of the hazards associated with identification verification, while simultaneously improving the user experience for your customers.
