In today’s digital era, it is more essential now than ever for businesses to implement identity verification systems for all types of business activity. This also includes age verification. Government bodies are also concentrating more on safeguarding underage individuals on digital platforms, so companies are also legally required to comply with the relevant regulations. The identity verification market has made more than $13 billion dollars. This is a significant growth from $4.83 billion in 2017 and is expected to grow even further to over $18 billion by 2027. Thus, more and more businesses are now using identity verification solutions to safeguard themselves.
Age Verification in Business
Via online age verifiers, businesses confirm the actual ages of their users and ensure that inappropriate content is not being wrongly accessed. This has emerged as a very essential part of identity verification as it is also important to protect underage users. Businesses in the e-commerce and gaming industries are especially required to follow these procedures. Failure to comply with legal requirements of online age verification can result in penalties and a tainted reputation for companies. Several underage users enter fake ages on online platforms and gain access to adult-based content. However, they do not realize the effects of sharing personal information online. Thus, businesses must implement effective online age verification practices.
Age can be verified by checking users’ IDs and matching them against databases. It can also be done through facial recognition where facial features are used for verification. Another method used to verify age is age gating. In this process, users have to provide their dates of birth or check a box that says that they are of a certain age, for example, “I am 18 years old or older.”
Challenges of Age Authentication
The process of verifying customer age is useful for businesses but it does not come without challenges.
For many businesses, there are limited methods available for age authentication. In some cases, procedures like biometric verification or face recognition are either not accessible or are not suitable for all kinds of customers. This makes the process difficult to follow effectively as some customers may not be undergoing age verification procedures.
Another challenge to age verification can be the privacy of the users. Not all users would be comfortable providing their ages to online platforms and might fear data breaches. Thus, verification processes might drive users away from the platform due to a negative experience and have a negative impact on the company’s revenue.
Age gating also poses a challenge most of the time as it may not be very effective. It is easy for users to check a box and claim to be of a certain age when they are not and gain access to age-restricted content. This might raise a lot of red flags and prove to be detrimental to the reputation of the company. This may result in heavy fines for the businesses.
Overcoming the Challenges
Even though age verification procedures have their challenges, these pitfalls can be overcome and the process can be made more efficient in a number of ways.
Businesses can implement proper age verification procedures that have alternative methods to facial recognition. Companies can identify ages online by using documents that can be verified from government databases and their authenticity can be confirmed. They can also implement technology that can calculate a user’s age using advanced algorithms.
Digital platforms can develop a comprehensive privacy policy that can assure users that their data will be used responsibly, along with easy-to-comprehend age verification guidelines which would help them to clearly understand why it is important to go through age checks and how their own safety is involved in the process.
Age gates rely on users to respond honestly and give out their real ages which is why it is not very effective. Thus, companies can replace age-gating with more efficient digital solutions such as asking users to upload their identification documents to verify their such as driver’s licenses or ID cards that contain identity information. This would speed up the process and encourage customer loyalty.
Conclusion
Therefore, it is important for businesses to realize the significance of age verification and educate their users about it. It is imperative to ensure compliance with legal verification regulations. Furthermore, age authentication procedures may have their challenges but there are solutions to combat those pitfalls that will ensure an exceptional customer experience and invite more customers to join their platform. Thus, age verification processes would be very beneficial for businesses to avoid penalties and build their brand.
