Path to age assurance compliance for online service providers emerges

Businesses offering a whole range of products and services online should be preparing now for age assurance regulations, even if they do not serve the UK market, where the countdown to enforcement has already begun.

Fortunately for those who will need to show compliance, early guidance on how to comply with the UK’s Online Safety Act includes a list of age assurance technologies that providers can put in place, ideally in combination to offer end-users a choice.

The seven age assurance technologies identified as good options by Ofcom, which is responsible for enforcing the Act, will be explored in a webinar hosted by Biometric Update and Goode Intelligence on March 6. Age assurance providers Ondato, Luciditi, Daon and JT Group will show how some of the most popular methods work, and Age Verification Provider’s Association (AVPA) Executive Director Iain Corby will share insight on the UK regime and global developments.

Attendance and an on-demand video recording are free with registration.

Businesses offering or providing a platform to those who offer online gaming, gambling, pornography and a range of age-restricted goods, from tobacco, vapes and alcohol to knives, are covered under the UK regulation, and likely to be included sooner or later in similar legislation elsewhere.

The European Union is marching towards age assurance regulation, steadily if not quite in lockstep.

Australia is about to begin testing technologies from dozens of biometrics and age assurance providers as it sets up new regulatory requirements for online age checks. That test is being organized by the UK’s Age Check Certification Scheme (ACCS), due to its familiarity with the technologies on offer.

Even the U.S. is introducing new regulation, whether at the state level, where dozens of states have proposed or enacted age verification rules, or the federal level, where members of Congress called on Corby’s testimony this week to address the SCREEN Act, which is currently at the committee stage.

But the concerns around keeping children from harmful material online are not unique to any country or region. For online service providers, the good news is that sorting out how to comply with the regulation in one jurisdiction will at least help with, and potentially ensure, compliance in the others.

Navigating the UK’s Online Safety Act – choosing the right age verification tech

Article Topics

age verification  |  biometric age estimation  |  biometrics  |  digital identity  |  legislation  |  Online Safety Act  |  regulation  |  UK age verification