You must have come across this age verification pop-up countless times without taking it seriously. Companies today are catching up and have realised the need of implementing better age verification strategies in order to avoid heavy fines, benefit from filtering legitimate customers and provide them with a frictionless verification process.
Age Verification Process
Through AI-based document verification solutions, checking the authenticity of identity documents and identifying the accurate age of users is not a problem anymore. The process involves:
- Extraction of user’s identity details from government-issued ID cards, passports, utility bills, or any other type of authentic identity document that is shown in the camera
- Age details are then used to perform accurate comparison checks based on the user’s entered date of birth
-By using a selfie to authorize purchases on websites, minors wrongfully using ID’s belonging to elders can be easily identified
3. After confirming the age of the customer, the system checks it against the required age bracket
4. The results are then displayed to the customer and updated in the back office
Age Verification Scanners
Age Verification Scanners accurately identify and stop underage customers at point-of-entry and point-of-purchase through age and ID verification. With a simple scan of government-issued ID or passport, the age, expiry status and validity of the users document is recorded and verified. This way, underage customers are blocked from purchasing age-restricted goods and services.
Age Verification Tactics By Industry
Online Gaming
From 2021 to 2025, revenue of the booming gaming industry is expected to show an annual growth rate of 7.0%, with the projected market volume increasing to US$6,345m by 2025. Children nowadays have the option to become players of any age. As a result, they can easily be subject to numerous scams, be taken advantage of, be at the receiving end of offensive language or even bullying. Therefore, many gaming companies have added an age barrier to their games to ensure that the players meet the required age to play. This can be done in the following ways:
- Checkboxes: This includes a section in the registration form where users have to check a box that says “I’m 18.” Some websites also ask for the date of birth to verify the legal age. This self-verification method, however, is not very effective as minors can provide false date of birth and check the box.
- Credit/Debit Cards: Credit and debit cards can also be used for age verification. This way, cardholders will be informed about all the activities being carried out. Parents can take necessary steps to protect their kids in case they are registering for an adult-oriented website.
- Liveness Detection: Liveness detection helps in detecting spoof attacks and in identifying minors on time by using 3D depth perception and skin texture analysis.
Online Gambling
To ensure security and gambling compliance, the following options can be used before entering the gambling platform:
- Age verification through online identity verification by using government-issued ID cards, passports, utility bills etc
- Verification of the user through live videos and selfie uploads. This provides comparison between the ID documents and real-time image
Pharmaceuticals
Underage drug users pose a major risk for online pharmacies due to which a proper system is required to manage all records.
ID card, or some other identification document, is used to extract the date of birth which is then compared to the age the users claim to be of
Dating Services
- Checkboxes stating “I’m 18”
- Age verification through ID documents at the time of profile creation can help companies get rid of catfishers
- Liveness detection whenever a user is operating their profile
Tobacco or Alcohol Stores
The legal drinking age in the US is set at 21. Therefore, it is crucial for alcohol sellers to accurately verify the age of customers before purchase. For this purpose, age should be verified via government issued IDs.
Key Takeaways
- Age Verification Scanners eliminate inconvenience, improve security, and increase compliance by scanning IDs
- Different age verification tactics can be used by businesses to improve compliance to rules and regulations
- Most commonly used tactics include Checkboxes, ID Document Verification, Live Videos and Selfie Uploads.
