The internet has changed our society dramatically. The fast pace at which it is creating information is making our lives complex because it is harder to organize this information properly. The increased use of the internet for banking, social networking, and other matters has given rise to a new breed of illegal activities.
The children are most vulnerable to these illegal activities because they do not have a proper understanding of what’s good or not. According to a survey, 57% of 12 years-old surveyed live-streamed on the apps that are supposed to be used by over-13s only. In addition to this, access to age-restricted products such as violent gaming and sexual content.
This exposure is harmful to children both physically and mentally and in order to minimize it, there is a need for swift age verification systems. It will not only help in protecting children but also the industry could avoid any kind of illegal activities involving children.
Online age verification is deemed necessary for saving children from age-restricted products. Normally, the sites selling age-restricted products use a user consent popups to verify the age.
These checks are easily avoidable and no one even bothers to read these consent forms. To really protect children the online industry should adopt robust age verification technology.
Before looking at how significant age verification online is, it is important to know what are age-restricted products and what legal obligations do online sellers have.
Age-restricted products and legal regulations
The age-restricted products consist of any product that is only allowed to be sold to people of minimum legal age. The minimum legal varies from product to product and jurisdiction to jurisdiction. So, the best way is to study the legal aspect of the market you are selling services.
In order to save children from harmful and unsuitable content available online:
- The regulatory authorities in different countries make stringent regulations.
- For instance, the United States’ Children Online Protection Act (COPA), binds internet companies to devise proper strategies for children protection.
- Moreover, the UK is looking to create stringent age verification laws to protect minors.
How online Identity verification services can help?
Identity verification is becoming a norm for the online businesses that are interested in eliminating online fraud and cutting the losses originating from these frauds. But not all identity verification services are performed to cut down on these losses, some are used for other purposes.
For instance, online age verification is implemented to define a certain age bracket for the end-users. Online age verification is deemed really important for businesses dealing in age-restricted services and products.
Age verification is used to verify the age of an end-user who wants to access online services on some platform. For age-restricted businesses, there is a requirement to check if the customer comes in the defined age bracket.
By adopting online identity verification services businesses could make sure that no under-age customer is allowed to access the services or products that are unsuitable for them.
In addition to this, identity verification services also ensure that the person is who they claim to be. This way businesses can protect themselves from online frauds such as identity theft, chargebacks and credit card fraud.