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 chats about using digital ID for buying alcohol, the safetytech that can prevent intimate image abuse, and privacy-preserving age checks.
Using digital ID to prove age when buying alcohol in pubs, restaurants and shops
Ever since launching the Yoti ID app back in November 2016, users have told us they want to prove their age on their phone to buy alcohol at hundreds of thousands of supermarkets, convenience stores, pubs, clubs, bars and other leisure events. Eight years on and it looks like the new Government will put a smile on the faces of over five million UK Yoti users by changing the alcohol law in 2025.
The overall impact of this law change in the UK is not well understood by the public, but it will be huge.
It’s likely that 10m-20m UK individuals will be using a free, UK Government certified digital ID, such as Yoti, within a year or two of the law change. If supermarkets are also allowed to use facial age estimation for digital proof of age, digital ID adoption will be closer to 10m. But if only digital ID is allowed, adoption will be closer to 20m.
When businesses can enable new customers to get proof of age, proof of ID and fast sign up at the touch of a button, an increasing percentage will accept UK Government certified digital ID, creating more utility and encouraging wider adoption amongst UK citizens. This law is very bad news for fraudsters.
Businesses accepting UK Government certified digital IDs will quickly see that ID fraud and financial fraud rates are much lower for customers using these digital IDs. Increasingly fraudsters will have to concentrate on defrauding individuals not using, or businesses not accepting, reusable digital IDs. This will encourage more businesses to accept digital IDs to both challenge suspicious accounts but also accept the growing number of customers who want to use reusable digital ID.
Ultimately, the new Government deciding to make a very low effort, cheap law change can deliver one of the biggest economic and convenience returns for UK citizens and businesses, all before the next election.
Safetytech to prevent intimate image abuse
All the safetytech exists today to prevent a porn site from unintentionally displaying intimate images and videos where the person has not consented to the intimate content being published on that specific porn site.
Platforms can check individuals in sexually explicit content are over 18 and have provided consent for the content to be published – otherwise this content should not be published. This can be achieved as simply as using facial age estimation to assess age and getting signed consent via an esignature.
No consent = no publication.
Yoti already provides this safetytech to some responsible porn operators.
Some experts remind me that:
- There are photos of nude bodies where no faces are viewable or a face is only partly in view. In this instance, safetytech can’t be used to ensure these people give consent.
- A nude body can be shared around without consent on an end2end messaging sites.
These examples are problematic but I remind those experts that where it’s easy to use safetytech to protect innocent victims from a serious online harm, we should use it. Even if it doesn’t offer protection in all cases. If safetytech can help the majority of people to give consent, then that’s a positive thing.
Deepfake nudes cannot give consent and lawmakers are recognising that the law on intimate image abuse must cover lookalike deepfake nudes as well as real nude images and videos. If there is no consent for publication, a porn operator will be risking hosting content that may or may not be deepfake.
Takedown of intimate images displayed without consent is not an effective mitigation, when automated safetytech can proactively prevent display in the first place.
Unfortunately, it looks like Ofcom hasn’t included this in their final Illegal Harms guidance. Instead of ensuring platforms do not unintentionally publish intimate images without consent from those in the content, Ofcom have stuck with only expecting sites and apps to be reactive and have a take down policy when they become aware of illegal content.
We made it clear publicly and privately to Ofcom that there is obvious safetytech that can prevent publication of intimate images where the participants had not provided consent. Relying on just taking down content for this priority offence is inadequate and does not go far enough to support and protect victims of intimate image abuse.
Safetytech exists to ensure the person appearing in an intimate image has given consent, matching their live face to the one in the content. They can also give consent with an esignature, providing a clear consent audit trail.
There is clear evidence of this safetytech (some responsible adult sites are already using it), and how it can create a safer online world.
A new era of online age checks
2025 is roughly the 30th anniversary of the publicly accessible internet. The world has changed dramatically over those 30 years and most of us now spend a lot of time each day online, for work, education, entertainment and staying in contact with friends and family. There are lots of benefits. But just as in the offline world, there can be harmful interactions online and most adults support restricting access to adult content to adults only.
There are opponents to adults having to prove they’re over 18 to access age-restricted content. This is because for most of the last 30 years, proving age online has required adults submitting identity documents, personal details or a credit card to websites or apps.
Some opponents of the new law in Australia restricting social media content to over 16s, believe age checks can’t be performed effectively and children will get around them. Other opponents think 13-15 year olds should be able to access social media but not under 13s.
As we end 2024, Yubo, one of the most popular social brands which is used by over 80 million people, has confirmed that age checks can be both effective and enhance user trust and experiences.
By the end of 2025, it will be very clear to most people that 1) most adults can prove they’re over 18 or 16 without using any identity documents or credit cards, 2) facial age estimation is very hard to spoof and 3) sensible regulation can avoid adults sharing any personally identifiable information (PII) with any adult platforms or social media sites, just to prove they’re over age.
My guess is the vast majority of adults will be fine about proving their age sometimes. We already see the majority of people choose facial age estimation when offered a choice of age methods. On some large sites, this is as high as over 95% choosing Yoti facial age estimation instead of an identity document to prove they’re over age. Other people may choose to get a reusable Digital ID to then anonymously share they are over 16 or 18.
Long after the rest of the world has moved on, some privacy groups will remain vehemently opposed to age assurance and be critical of Yoti’s innovation in this area – despite our big investment in privacy preservation and security.
