OpenAge is on a roll: CEO talks AgeKeys with Biometric Update Podcast

Since launching in November, the OpenAge Initiative has become a common reference point among many in the age assurance industry. It got a shout-out at the recent Federal Trade Commission hearing on age assurance, singled out by the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC). In tandem, the Free Speech Coalition – the trade association representing the adult content industry – also cited its passkey-based AgeKey as a positive step in the right direction.

When “Washington, D.C.’s premier institute applying the Judeo-Christian moral tradition to critical issues of public policy” and Big Porn are willing to get in bed together, something special must be afoot.

Beyond that, OpenAge has won support from social media giant Meta, as well as major digital identity providers like Persona, Incode and Socure.

“That’s the name of the game,” says Julian Corbett, head of the OpenAge Initiative, on the latest episode of the Biometric Update Podcast. “Interoperability works because leading platforms are willing to share a signal – or more appropriately, users save their own data, and accept that on other platforms. There is no value in an interoperable, cross-platform solution if it isn’t widely accepted.”

This is what OpenAge hopes to address.

“We were seeing a lot of commonality in terms of what the principles should be behind an approach for an age signal that would be interoperable, reusable, privacy preserving, and able to be a user-centric solution, which we felt would be a really important pillar to stand on in terms of the positioning and alleviating some of the rightful concerns that users have,” Corbett says.

“Regardless of what, what regulators may decide in a given country for a given type of content, or, you know, set at different ages, if age assurance is required, what is the responsible way that that can be delivered? And is there a path where users can feel more comfortable with having to comply with these age assurance mandates?”

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Runtime: 27:38

Article Topics

age verification  |  AgeKeys  |  k-ID  |  OpenAge  |  passkeys  |  reusable digital ID