OFB – Digital Age Verification Regulations for Online Businesses

With the rapid increase in technologically sound solutions, accessing online services and products are no more an uphill task. When we talk about the digital world, there can be many service providers that offer certain kinds of services that are not suitable for a particular type of audience, especially those under a specific age limit. That being said, e-gaming (online betting) platforms in the UK had to pay fines of as much as 19.6 million pounds due to money laundering and financial crime conducted through these channels. 

In this regard, regulatory authorities like the European Union and the Financial Action Task Force have published age verification regulations for digital service operators. This helps merchants selling age-limited products to stay compliant as well as fulfil their moral and social responsibility of protecting minors from online harms. 

For instance, in the United Kingdom, the Gambling Commission has introduced a new set of changes on how e-gaming platforms operate and carry out their business activities. Considering these requirements, service providers operating in age-restricted industries are directed to verify personally identifiable information of each onboarding user before they start delivering services to them.

Age Verification in the Digital Space

The intent of age verification is straightforward, to verify if the end-user is above the legal age limit or not. For this purpose, the age verification solution takes into consideration user documents that are authentic and issued either by the government or by any official department. The information present on these IDs gives important details about the user such as their name, residential address, and date of birth, etc. Although manual age checks are still in practice but not always promised guaranteed results due to the potential of human negligence and delayed procedures. 

These days, digital age verification is surfacing the market that allows businesses to automate the process of cross-checking the customer’s age and identifying as a legal candidate for age-restricted services. These intelligent software help enterprises keep up with digital age verification regulations and deliver a purposeful experience to the end-user.

Online Age Verification – Corporate Advantages

Compliant with Obligations

Businesses of all kinds face some kind of financial obligations these days. But for age-restricted businesses, there are certain age verification regulations as well that come as an added responsibility. In the UK and USA, vendors of these products have to perform mandatory age checks before they allow online users to open accounts and conduct transactions. If a business is compliant with age verification regulations, they earn a good reputation in the market as well as increase their sale opportunities at scale. 

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) 

Age verification regulations are built around ethical and social standards that define minor protection as the first and foremost duty of age-restricted service providers. This is often termed as a corporate social responsibility that merchants and service providers must fulfil to get better recognition in the market as well as in the eyes of their customers and regulatory authorities. This eventually brings value to the brand that can be beneficial in the long run. 

Following these moral obligations is the need of the hour since many minors are exposed to the harms of illegal consumption of alcohol, tobacco-based products and games that involve a fair degree of violence and betting. A digital age verification solution is the way to go since it restricts children from accessing content not appropriate for them and businesses to fulfil their responsibilities as a compliant service provider.  

Identifying Fake Customers

At times, minors will try to use their parent’s credit card to authorize an online transaction. This will usually take place with the consent of a guardian in case the minor wishes to buy a product that they may not get consent for normally such as a bottle of wine or an e-cigarette, etc. These types of transactions ultimately become a big hassle for online businesses because when the actual cardholder gets to know about this non-consented transaction they will file a chargeback which the business has to resolve in favor of the customer. Repeated instances can heavily affect a firm’s capital and leave them at loss. 

An intelligent solution purpose-built on state-of-the-art age verification regulations can significantly take down the risk of minors authorizing transactions on behalf of their parents each time. Real-time verification of facial identity combined with a document authentication process makes the age verification process foolproof and streamlined.