Age Verification System: How to Add It Into Your Business
By 2025, an estimated 1.8 billion children will be online globally, highlighting the urgent need for businesses to prioritize online safety. In this article, we will talk about age verification systems. Age verification systems are powerful tools that go beyond simply protecting children; they also help businesses ensure regulatory compliance, prevent fraud, and enhance user experience.
From this blog post you’ll learn:
What are the age verification systems' use cases?
Age verification system benefits
Types of age verification systems
How to choose an age verification system for your business
How Luxand.cloud can help
Use Cases
In this section of the article, we will provide some statistics on how important it is to use an age verification system in your business to reduce financial losses, protect your business, and protect your users.
Gaming, Gambling and Sports Betting
31% of children aged 11-16 in Great Britain reported spending their own money on gambling in 2022. Among those who gambled, 0.9% were classified as problem gamblers, meaning their gambling habits caused them harm or were at risk of doing so. Source: Gambling Commission Great Britain: Young people and gambling (2022).
Online Dating
According to the National Library of Medicine, 15% of adolescents reported using online dating apps in the past year, while 78% reported having seen dating app advertisements on the internet in the past year. Source: Adolescent Use of Dating Applications and the Associations with Online Victimization and Psychological Distress.
e-Cigarettes and Vaping
14.1% of high school students reported current e-cigarette use in 2022. This translates to approximately 2.14 million high school students using e-cigarettes. Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Results from the Annual National Youth Tobacco Survey.
Alcohol
According to the 2022 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) conducted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), 3.2 million people ages 12 to 20 (8.2% in this age group) reported consuming alcohol beyond "just a few sips" in the past month.
Age Verification System Benefits
As you can see from the above statistics, using an age verification system can help businesses in various ways:
Protect customers. Age verification can help to protect customers from fraud and other online threats.
Prevent minors from accessing prohibited content. Age verification can help to prevent minors from accessing content that is not age-appropriate.
Save money. Age verification can help businesses save money by preventing fraud and reducing the risk of fines and penalties.
Types of Age Verification Systems
There are different types of technologies on which age verification systems are built.
Government-issued ID verification
This method requires users to upload a scan of their government-issued ID, such as a driver's license or passport. The system then uses optical character recognition (OCR) to extract the user's date of birth and compare it to their claimed age.
Facial recognition
This method requires clients to take a photo of their government-issued ID (e.g., driver's license, passport, or ID card) using their smartphone or computer's webcam. They then need to take a live selfie. This allows the system to verify that the person taking the photos is the same person who is making the online purchase or creating the online account.
Age estimation
The age verification system scans the person's face in the image and facial features like the distance between eyes, wrinkle patterns, skin texture, and more. The system compares its features to its learned patterns and estimates the person's age range. It usually doesn't provide an exact age but rather a range (e.g., 25-35 years old).
KBA
KBA is also known as knowledge-based authentication. This system asks users to answer questions about themselves that only someone of their claimed age would know, such as the name of their first school or a historical event that happened during their claimed birth year.
Third-party age verification services
These services use a combination of the methods mentioned above to verify a user's age. They typically have access to large databases of public records and can also use social media data to verify a user's identity.
How to Choose an Age Verification System for Your Business
Understanding Your Unique Requirements
First of all, think about your business needs and your target audience. These questions will help you identify your needs and understand the direction to take when choosing an age verification system:
Are there specific age restrictions mandated by law for your products or services?
Who are your primary users? Understanding their demographics and comfort levels with different verification methods is crucial.
How critical is it to ensure accurate age verification? A higher level of security often comes with more friction for users.
How sensitive is the personal data you collect? Weigh the privacy implications of different methods against your security needs.
Explore Age Verification Methods
At this stage, you need to study the different age verification methods (which we have discussed above), the pros and cons of each method, and which method is easy to implement and which is difficult. Based on your budget, which method will be the most cost-effective for you? The following questions will help you at this stage:
How accurate is the method of verifying a user's age?
How secure is the method?
How easy is it for users to use the method?
Do I have the technical expertise or a technical team to implement the method?
How much does it cost to implement and maintain the method?
How much money do I have to spend on age verification?
Consult About the System Features
At this stage, use all the resources that will help you understand how a particular age verification system works. Here you need to take into account:
Reviews. G2 is the most popular and reliable review platform that you can browse.
Utilize free trials. Many age verification providers offer free trials, allowing you to test their features before paying.
Request demos. Many companies offer free demos, so experts can provide you with information about features, implementation, and pricing plans.
Consider legal consultations. Depending on your industry and regulations, consulting with a lawyer specializing in data privacy and age verification can be helpful. They can advise on legal considerations and ensure your chosen system complies with relevant laws.
How Luxand.cloud Can Help
Luxand.cloud is a cloud-based facial recognition technology company that offers, among other services, an age verification solution. Here are some points on how Luxand.cloud can help your business.
Age Verification
Our age verification system uses machine learning algorithms to analyze facial features and estimate a user's age. This technology can be used to ensure that age-restricted content, products, and services are only accessed by users who are of legal age.
Liveness Detection
In addition to age verification, Luxand.cloud also offers liveness detection, which will help your business not only determine the age of your potential customers but also be sure that no one is using deepfake or other types of spoofing, which adds another layer of protection.
Fraud Deterrence
A comprehensive solution based on age detection technology and liveness detection helps to reduce fraud by preventing attackers from using fake images or videos to impersonate real users. Age detection technology can be used to verify the age of a user, while liveness detection can be used to verify that the user is a live person and not a fake image or video.
By using these two technologies together, you can create a more secure and reliable way to protect your business and customers.
To learn more about our Age Verification Solution, visit our website page Age Verification Software. You can request a free demo from the page to learn more.
Conclusion
In conclusion, implementing an age verification system can offer significant benefits for businesses and their customers alike. From protecting children and complying with regulations to enhancing user experience and mitigating fraud, these systems play a crucial role in creating a safer and more responsible online environment.
Want to learn more? Read our blog post, "Top Identity Verification Methods For Businesses 2024," on our Facial Recognition blog for an overview of popular and effective methods.