Articles
Articles
Nov 14, 2024
Understanding age assurance in the UK’s Tobacco and Vapes Bill
In a significant move towards tightening regulations on tobacco and vaping products, the UK has introduced the Tobacco and Vapes Bill. Originally introduced by the previous Conservative government, the Bill has now been reintroduced by the new Labour government, signalling bipartisan support. The Bill aims to create a “smoke-free generation” by gradually raising the age of sale for tobacco and vaping products every year until they are completely phased out across the UK. What is the main aim of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill? The Tobacco and Vapes Bill seeks to tighten the regulatory framework around tobacco and
Articles
Oct 25, 2024
Age Check Certification Scheme evaluation for Yoti Facial Age Estimation
We are pleased to announce Yoti has been re-evaluated by the Age Check Certification Scheme (ACCS) for our facial age estimation (FAE) on our latest September 2024 model. ACCS now report our Mean Absolute Error (MAE) for 18 year olds is just 1.05 years, with a Standard Deviation (SD) of just 1.01 years. ACCS first tested Yoti’s September 2020 model in November 2020, reporting the MAE for 18 year olds to be 1.79, demonstrating our continued effort to improve the performance of our model. Yoti has been training its FAE model since early 2018 by using data captured mainly
Articles
Oct 25, 2024
Thoughts from our CEO
In this blog series, our CEO Robin Tombs will be sharing his experience, whilst focusing on major themes, news and issues in the world of identity verification and age assurance. This month, Robin gives a summary of the upcoming legislation for online porn in France, responds to Ofcom’s claims that facial age estimation is not effective for under 13s, and looks at the upcoming Digital Information and Smart Data Bill. French regulator introduces age checks for online adult content Big news this month that Arcom, the French regulator responsible for online porn, has announced the date that platforms
Articles
Oct 24, 2024
Understanding the UK’s new Data Bill
The Data (Use and Access) Bill, known more simply as the “Data Bill”, is a landmark piece of UK legislation that aims to reshape how individuals and businesses interact with digital data. It will introduce provisions for a national digital identity trust framework, helping to foster trust in digital identities by ensuring that businesses adhere to strict standards during digital transactions. This blog gives an overview of the Data Bill and what this means for digital identities in the UK. Why has the Government introduced the Data Bill? The Government has said that the Bill will “unlock the
Articles
Oct 18, 2024
French regulator Arcom introduces age checks for online adult content
This month, Arcom, the French regulator responsible for online porn, has announced the date platforms will need to introduce age checks. From 11th January 2025, adult operators and platforms with pornographic content will need to check the age of users, ensuring only adults can access the content. There will be a three month transitional period, where temporary methods like bank card verification can be used as a preliminary age filter, but they must include strong authentication to ensure that the user is the cardholder. After the transitional period ends on 11 April 2025, adult site operators will need to
Articles
Oct 17, 2024
Understanding age assurance in the Online Safety Act
The Online Safety Act 2023 is a piece of UK legislation that aims to protect children and adults online. It covers a wide range of issues including minimising the risk of children seeing harmful and age-inappropriate content, removing illegal content like child sexual abuse material (CSAM), criminalising fraudulent and scam ads, and introducing age verification for certain online services. This blog looks at some of the age requirements in the Online Safety Act and what this means for tech companies, adult sites, gaming companies, social media platforms and dating sites. What is the purpose of the Online Safety