Articles

An image of a person's smartphone. The person is using Yoti's facial age estimation technology. Next to this image, the text reads: "externally audited, over 600 million age checks, used by leading brands". Underneath this list are the logos of Instagram, Aldi, SuperAwesome and Only Fans.

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

7 min read
An image of a young person looking at a phone screen. The content on the phone has been blurred out. It has been replaced with a graphic of a crossed-out eye and the words "sensitive content".

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 Act 2023?

10 min read
An illustration of a padlock with the Yoti logo sitting at the centre. Alongside this are three smaller icons showing that the app is free (represented by a pound sign that has been crossed out, cannot be hacked (represented by a pickaxe that has been crossed out) or seen by any third parties (represented by an eye that has been crossed out).

How we keep your Digital ID private and secure

We’re committed to making the digital world safer for everyone. Yoti was created as we wanted to give every person a secure way of proving their age or identity. It’s quite literally why we exist. So it only made sense that we’ve built our Digital ID app with privacy and security at its core. We’re building technology that makes it easier and safer for you to go about your business, but that doesn’t mean we have to know your business. Just as the right to an identity is a fundamental human right, so is the right to privacy. And we’ll

6 min read
Person using betting app on smartphone

Australia’s new National Self-Exclusion Register

From 21st August 2023, Australians will be able to ban themselves from all online wagering companies. “BetStop”, the National Self-Exclusion Register (NSER) will let people exclude themselves from all licensed online wagering operators, for a minimum of 3 months and up to a lifetime. The move aims to protect vulnerable people and reduce problem wagering.  The BetStop NSER will be managed by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). ACMA released a report which found that 11 per cent of Australians had participated in online wagering in the past six months – up from 8% in 2020.   What does

3 min read
Impactful text saying "Rivet connects big ideas to major impact"

Yoti Foundation supports RIVET, funding and amplifying social change projects

Yoti, via the Yoti Foundation, are delighted to announce our support of RIVET, a nonprofit organisation funding and amplifying social change projects led by young people all over the world. RIVET brings together young people, NGOs and influencers to finance projects led by young people tackling everything from food insecurity in rural areas to systemic gender bias in their communities. RIVET support projects in 5 key areas: Environmental Sustainability Poverty Reduction Education Health and Wellbeing Inclusion To date, RIVET has funded over 1,000 projects in 66 countries, impacting over 260,000 people. They are an organisation that align closely with our

2 min read
An infographic detailing the stages of effective facial age estimation. This is presented as three layers. The first layer is facial age estimation with liveness detection only. The description reads "check the person behind the camera is a 'live' person and not a photo or video." The second layer adds independent testing. The description reads "have a credible third party assess the technology for data compliance, bias and accuracy". The third layer adds injection attack detection. It reads "add robust anti-spoofing technology at the point an image is being taken to detect injection attacks.

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

8 min read