The major shift with the adaptation of digitization has played a huge role in influencing the behaviour of modern humans. Each aspect of life from societies to culture to economies have undergone the positive and negative side effects of this digital transformation. This means the internet has become a basic necessity for us to operate anything. However, this also means that the minors are also impacted through such a major shift without age verification. According to the research, 71% of the youth is now using the internet and people from age 15 to 24 are estimated to be connected to online groups. It is also estimated that 1 out of every three internet user is a minor. With this blog, we will highlight the importance of age verification for internet users to protect minors.
Impacts of Digital Age for Minors
No doubt, children have benefited a lot from the digital age as it opened the door for ample opportunities for them including learning opportunities, self-development, and entertainment. However, this is not just limited to all good as the internet can lead a way for minors to get exposed to a huge number of threats that could have long-lasting harm. Minors are at a huge risk of falling victim to the volatility of the digital space. This includes minor’s identity theft which is considered a major risk in today’s world. In 2017, more than one child’s data was compromised which resulted in a total loss of 2.6 million dollars. In addition to that, families of the minors had to pay 540 million dollars out of their own bank accounts to protect their child’s data.
Statistics like these have opened up the question of how to fight such crimes carried out against minors. The strict regulatory framework has been called upon to acknowledge these issues and come up with strong measures to protect the data of minors. Ever since the pandemic, digital activity has increased which resulted in more harm for the minors and their data. The fraudsters in the digital space are always looking for vulnerable minors to benefit from. The famous application, TikTok, being widely used by minors have been sued multiple times for mishandling the data of the minors, especially against the GDPR compliance.
Age verification solution is required to provide protection for children while keeping in line with all the security and data protection regulations. The regulatory authorities from around the world have developed a system for the requirement of age verification. If any online platform found non-compliant can face serious consequences as age checks are taken very seriously.
Online Age Verification Solution
The manual solution for the age verification system contains a simple age affirmation that requires the user to simply tick the checkbox to confirm that they are older than 18. This method is just a formality and it does not serve the purpose of age verification as it can be easily tricked.
Since the digital transformation of the world, the right approach would be to adopt a technological solution for the age verification online checks. Here are some of the methods listed below that can be used to verify the age of the customers by online vendors.
Credit Card Verification
This method requires the end-user to provide the details of their credit card or debit card. Since only adults have credit or debit cards, this means that the person is not a minor if they are able to provide their credit card information. The information is also verified by the digital solution to ensure its authenticity.
Government-issued IDs
The identity verification solutions can verify the age of the individual by verifying the authenticity of their ID document. The end-user submits their ID document picture online and the AI-powered solution ensures its authenticity. Once it is established that the ID card is legit, then the age on the ID card is checked to see if the person is an adult.
Biometric Authentication
Biometric can be performed through face recognition. The end-user has to submit their photo along with a photo of the ID document and the facial recognition will identify the face against the picture on the ID document to ensure the authenticity of the ID card and the age of the person through it.
