Online service providers are increasingly being called upon to provide age appropriate experiences online for their younger users. To do so effectively, service providers need to know the age of their users to make sure they’re providing the right experiences.
Why are age appropriate experiences important?
The ICO’s Children’s Code, originating in the UK, is driving a global movement to ensure children are able to enjoy online interaction ‘age appropriately’.
A growing number of countries around the world are already reviewing legislation for a range of age restricted goods and services, particularly age assurance for online services. Specific initiatives are being developed, with the Californian Age-Appropriate Design Code Act in the US, the EU’s Digital Services Act, and the Online Safety Bill in the UK. Adult content sites are also using Yoti age estimation successfully to prevent children from accessing their websites.
What are age appropriate experiences online?
Child safety and protection is the significant factor here. They range from ensuring age appropriate interaction for children, protection against detrimental content and grooming, and supporting age appropriate content moderation. The ICO defines the code as applying to all service providers that have children access their services. This includes:
- Social media
- Streaming services
- Online gaming
- Chat rooms
- Forums
- Apps
So how can Yoti help with age appropriate experiences online?
For a long time, the discussion around age verification has centred on the practicality, effectiveness and cost of implementing such a solution. However, technical solutions have now been developed that are scalable, global and affordable for operators.
For example, Yoti’s age estimation is the most privacy-preserving, quickest method of age assurance; it is a global, popular way for service providers to determine age from an image or selfie. Our experience has shown that given the option of age verification methods, around 4 in 5 users choose to use Yoti’s age estimation.
Learn more about Yoti’s age estimation and age verification solutions or get in touch for a demo.