Age assurance
Articles
Oct 10, 2023
Exploring bias in credit card-based age verification
We publish the accuracy rates of our facial age estimation technology, split by gender, age and skin tone. By being open and transparent, we hope to give businesses and users confidence in the technology. We also hope this helps regulators to fairly review facial age estimation as an effective age assurance method. However whilst evaluating facial age estimation, some stakeholders and regulators overlook the drawbacks and bias shown in other age assurance approaches. Bias and limitations of using credit cards for age verification One age check method approved in many countries is asking adults to use a credit card
Articles
Sep 14, 2023
Age assurance: What makes for the maturity of a technology or an industry?
Last week, the Australian government decided against the eSafety Commissioner’s recommendation of a pilot before requiring adult sites to verify the ages of visitors. They said this was due to concerns about the privacy of people’s data and the maturity of age assurance technology. So what exactly would constitute a mature technology? Is it something comparable to NASA’s Technology Readiness level? This suggests the technology needs to have gone through a thorough process of research and prototyping, before testing in a live environment and then ultimately rolling it out. If that’s the case, we can say that Yoti and other
Articles
Aug 03, 2023
Effective facial age estimation: a privacy-preserving approach to age assurance
For platforms to deliver age-appropriate content, they need to know the age of their users. Age estimation technology can provide an inclusive and accessible solution. It’s possible to estimate a person’s age from a number of features, including their voice, face, palm or fingerprints. Some age estimation methods are very accurate. Others collect little or even no personal data. But very few can do both. When done to a high standard, effective facial age estimation can offer a high level of privacy and a high level of assurance. Age estimation in the real world Consider the following situation: a
Articles
Jul 11, 2023
Effective Age Verification: Going beyond reading a date of birth on an ID
Regulators around the world are recognising that more needs to be done to protect children from harmful content online. From the Age Appropriate Design Code and the Digital Services Act to the Online Safety Act and California Age Appropriate Design Code, businesses are being required to have age-appropriate controls in place. But to do this, they need to know the age of those accessing their services. After all, if they don’t know someone’s age, they can’t protect them. This raises some important questions. How should companies verify the ages of their users? How can they ensure age verification is
Articles
Jun 22, 2023
Free Digital ID age checks
With so much of our lives spent online – we can chat to friends, watch our favourite shows, and expand our learning – it’s so important to make sure children are only accessing age-appropriate content. In the UK, the Age Appropriate Design Code (the ‘AADC’, also called the Children’s Code) sits alongside the Online Safety Act. In the US, California has passed its own version of the AADC which comes into force from 1st July 2024. An increasing number of US regulators are also bringing in legislation which requires social media and adult platforms to verify the age of users.
Articles
Feb 24, 2023
Global retail report: Exploring how facial age estimation improves the self-checkout
Nearly four years ago we integrated our facial age estimation technology into retail self-checkouts. Since then, it has been trialled by retailers in the US and Estonia, with further pilots taking place in Germany, Poland and Czech Republic. And last year UK supermarkets – including Asda, Morrisons, Tesco and Co-op – tested the technology as part of a Home Office regulatory sandbox. The aim of the sandbox was to trial digital age verification for the sale of alcohol under the UK Licensing Act (2003). Detailed reports from the Home Office and the supermarkets who participated in the sandbox are due