ShareRing joins Australia’s age assurance technology trial

ShareRing has announced its participation in Australia’s age assurance technology trial, a $6.5 million initiative aimed at enforcing social media age restrictions for children under 16.

ShareRing is Digital Identity and Attribute Trust Framework (DIATF) certified, and provides self-sovereign digital identity in the form of a mobile identity wallet after completing a biometric video selfie check. By providing reusable digital IDs, the Melbourne-based decentralised digital identity solutions provider says it eliminates the need for repetitive verification while maintaining instant trustless verification and a privacy first approach.

Next week ShareRing’s technology will begin testing in a pilot program with school students in Darwin in the Northern Territory.

“We are proud to lead this crucial initiative to protect young Australians online via robust age verification, and shape a safer digital future,” said Tim Bos, ShareRing’s founder and chief technology officer.

Last November, UK-based Age Check Certification Scheme (ACCS) won the contract to run the trial and has been tasked by the Australian government with studying and evaluating the effectiveness, reliability and privacy impacts of various age assurance technologies.

Australian software quality engineering consultancy KJR is leading efforts in the technology evaluation, and presented how they are doing so yesterday at the Global Age Assurance Standards Summit in Amsterdam.

Results from the trial are expected sometime in fall 2025.

In keeping with its philosophy of transparency by default in running the trial,  ACCS published its Evaluation Proposal report in February. A full list of participants is available on the age assurance technology trial’s official website.

Article Topics

Age Assurance Technology Trial  |  age verification  |  Australia age verification  |  biometrics  |  digital identity  |  ShareRing