Online Age Verification: Blocking the Access of Adult Content to Kids
With the emerging technological advancements, the ease of accessing information has also increased. Now a common user can easily study a book from any part of the world and read any chef’s recipe. The education has upgraded like virtual lectures, online courses, and remote workshops, students can get a bachelor’s degree from any institute offshore just by having online lectures. Like education, other industries like health, communication, and banks also automated their operations. Customers can open a bank account without visiting the bank and patients can get prescriptions from a doctor without having a physical appointment in the clinic.
There is zero speculation that the use of modern technology is more among youngsters. The young generation always has a fascination with what’s new coming. Although there are many learning opportunities for kids on online platforms, they are also vulnerable to some jeopardies. In 2017 Javelin Research Group reported a loss of 2.6 billion US Dollars due to underage identity theft in which $540 million were paid by the victims’ families. About one million minors were affected by digital identity theft in that year. Some of the online websites have not set age verification during sign-up or accessing the information from their database. Every online information has some age content protocols related to the age of users. This is their moral and legal responsibility to give the right access to a right aged user.
How Age is Verified?
It is the verification of the user’s age while accessing an online web service. Online shopping stores sell some products that are only for adults. Sellers of age-restricted products must ensure the age of their customers before any purchase. Online age verification is done through government-issued ID documents like ID cards, driving licenses, or passports. The process is performed in the following steps:
- User uploads or captures the image of the document
- Live selfie the user is captured
- The image on the document and selfie is verifiedÂ
- Age is calculated through Date-of-Birth on document
If the identity and information are verified the user is allowed to access the services otherwise not.Â
Traditional Age Verification vs Online Age Verification
All of the online users are well aware of the checkbox “I am Above 18” and they also know how easy it is to bypass. Minors can easily tick the checkbox and access the age-restricted information. There is no verification of the above operation in the traditional age verification, this raises the need for some verification process that can accurately verify age of online users. Online age verification software accurately calculates and verifies the age of users.Â
Biometric Age Verification
Biometric verification is another way of age verification. The cutting edge automatically calculates the age of the through facial expressions on the live selfie. Biometric uses Artificial intelligence Machine Learning algorithms. Facial aging technology is used in biometric age verification. It points to the surface of the face that changes with age. Facial change occurs primarily due to the color of skin, transformation on the soft and hard inner tissues of the skin.
Industrial Use Cases of Age verification
E-Sports
Statista predicts that the global market revenue of esports will be $1.6 billion in 2023. Kids have more interest in digital games and online competitions. Age verification is essential on e-gaming platforms because some games have an unsuitable interface that can affect the mental health of minors. Esports need to verify all the players and set age protocols so that no age-restricted game is played by minors.
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Online Pharmacies
There is no doubt that online pharmacies provide great comforts for patients’ attendants. They can order a medicine remotely and get the delivery of their purchase at their home seamlessly. Sometimes kids might order prescribed-only medicines for fun. This can cause serious health problems. Online pharmacies can be sued by parents for their kids’ health issues. Online age verification will guarantee the delivery of medicines to the right hands.
Concluding the above discussion, online age verification will prevent the access of age-restricted or adult content. This will give a better customer experience for the host websites and save them from sues and chargebacks from customers.
