In this modern age of technological innovations, fraudulent activities are up-pacing swiftly. Technological advancements and cybercriminals are evolving in parallel to each other in this tech-oriented world. Financial institutions need to check their customers’ identities in order to eliminate frauds and scams. Banks, foreign exchange and insurance corporations are performing customer verification through online KYC. This helps them to onboard legitimate customers and give a secure position to their platforms. Likewise, numerous industries need to verify their customer’s age as mandated by regulators and corporate social responsibility. 

Prevention of child’s exploitation is mandatory in this modern age of tech-oriented world where every child can access the internet effortlessly. This easy acquisition leads us to the fact that it is a high time for almost all the sectors around the globe to incorporate age verification checks for the prevention of child’s access. Coronavirus is just an excuse for online education due to which children have easy access to the internet. 

Age Verification

Every business has set a limit to the customers’ age, people below or above that age aren’t accepted. For instance, a driving license is issued to a person above 16 or 18. Age verification means checking the age of the new customer if it falls in the specified bracket or not. 

There are various ways of verifying a customer’s age either online or on the spot. 

Onsite Verification

When a customer goes to age-restricted products selling shop. The storekeeper has to verify his age, he does that by just looking at his physical appearance. He analyzes his body and facial biometrics and roughly calculates his age. This method is old and has a high rate of mistakes.

Then an extra security feature was added to this method, confirming the age through identity card. Now the customer has to present an identity document to the shopkeeper to buy age-restricted products. The shopkeepers can see the date of birth and calculate his age with the current date. Although this method is safer than the previous, still not error-prone. A customer can present fake or fraudulent id documents and get adult products. 

Now he can use a document scanner that can verify its authenticity. He just has to upload an image to the scanner for verification. This procedure is pretty much secure and reliable.

Online Age Verification

There are multiple ways of verifying a user’s age through online means. As businesses are shifting towards online platforms. The trend of e-shopping and digital services is rising. During Covid-19 lockdown, the e-commerce sector proves to be an alternative to onsite shopping. But the verification process was not secure enough to streamline online shopping.  There is a need for verifying customer’s ages and giving them the services/products accordingly. 

Some websites use a consent verification method in which the user has to tick a “Consent Checkbox”. This method is very common and mostly used by websites giving free information. When a user tries to access the online services, a page appears on his screen having terms and conditions on it. At the bottom of it, there is a checkbox with the title “I am Above 18”. This method is as easy to crack as plucking a flower. A kid can easily bypass this procedure, which raises the need for another solid online age verification method. 

Like the onsite method, age can be verified by documents by online software. The reason for reliance on the documents is because it is issued after keen observation. Only government-approved identity documents can confirm a person’s age efficiently. It is given to a person after birth certificate confirmation and physical verification. There are very minimal chances where a person gives the wrong date of birth to the issuance authorities. If it happens, he will be caught by law enforcement agencies shortly. 

Here is the walkthrough of verifying age through online method:

• The online user is required to give an image of an identity document approved by the government. The image is uploaded to the software
• Then the software clicks a real-time facial selfie of the customer 
• It undergoes verification checks 

Verification Process

• First, the document’s originality is marked. It is checked that it is really an authentic id. It is done by checking the holograms, MRZ code, and rainbow marks
• Then facial recognition is conducted on photo id and selfie
• The age data is extracted and it is checked that it is in the required range or not
• If all the verifications are successful, the user is allowed onboard

Wrapping it Up

Businesses like pharmacies, alcohol stores, and gambling sites are obligated to verify their users’ age. As these sectors have also gone online. Online age verification can prove to be the uttermost solution for them. Also, the social media platforms that have billions of active users can use this service. This will help in preventing minors from harassment and cyberbullying. Businesses can create a more safe online environment by verifying each customer’s age. Modern age verification solutions involve data extraction technology. Date of birth of an individual is extracted from official documents such as a government issued identity card, driving license and passport for user authentication and for the prevention of encountering any illicit activity.