Age assurance

Infographic displaying the stages of doing effective age verification with ID documents. Namely, Document authenticity check (low assurance) + Proof of ownership (medium assurance) + Liveness check (high assurance).

Effective Age Verification: Going beyond reading a date of birth on an ID

Regulators around the world are recognising that more needs to be done to protect children from harmful content online. From the Age Appropriate Design Code and the Digital Services Act to the Online Safety Act and California Age Appropriate Design Code, businesses are being required to have age-appropriate controls in place. But to do this, they need to know the age of those accessing their services. After all, if they don’t know someone’s age, they can’t protect them. This raises some important questions. How should companies verify the ages of their users? How can they ensure age verification is

6 min read
Free digital ID age checks poster with two smartphones showing two methods of age checks: Age estimation and Digital ID verified "age over" attributes

Free Digital ID age checks

This blog post was updated in March 2025 with new and updated regulations. It also clarifies that the Digital ID age checks are free to businesses, when they are used alongside other Yoti age verification solutions. ***** With so much of our lives spent online – we can chat to friends, watch our favourite shows, and expand our learning – it’s so important to make sure children are only accessing age-appropriate content. A wave of regulations around the world are aiming to create safer online environments. In the UK, the Age Appropriate Design Code (the ‘AADC’, also called the

7 min read
Preview of the global retail report entitled "Exploring how facial age estimation improves the self checkout experience"

Global retail report: Exploring how facial age estimation improves the self-checkout

Nearly four years ago we integrated our facial age estimation technology into retail self-checkouts. Since then, it has been trialled by retailers in the US and Estonia, with further pilots taking place in Germany, Poland and Czech Republic. And last year UK supermarkets – including Asda, Morrisons, Tesco and Co-op – tested the technology as part of a Home Office regulatory sandbox. The aim of the sandbox was to trial digital age verification for the sale of alcohol under the UK Licensing Act (2003).  Detailed reports from the Home Office and the supermarkets who participated in the sandbox are due

3 min read
People with their estimated ages

On Facial Age Estimation, improvements and updates

We continue to invest in improving the accuracy of our world-leading facial age estimation and we will soon be releasing a new ‘Jan 2023’ model with improved accuracy across all skin tones and gender for those aged 6-70. At Yoti we constantly strive to improve all our services given our commitment to tech for good, and given the growing market importance of these services and increasing regulatory engagement. For example, coming soon we’ll be introducing multiple, concurrent age estimation models, which will help improve accuracy even further, whilst still completing a check within seconds.  We will also continue to update

3 min read
Woman using Yoti's age estimation solution at the self checkout in a supermarket

Yoti digital age verification trialled at supermarkets

Last year, UK supermarkets – including Asda, Morrisons and The Co-op – trialled our digital age verification at self-checkouts in a scheme run by the Home Office. During the trial, shoppers in participating stores could try two new ways to prove their age: Facial age estimation technology: shoppers purchasing alcohol looked at a camera on the self checkout and age estimation technology estimated their age. A privacy-preserving solution, it didn’t require any personal details or ID documents, and all images were instantly deleted once someone received their estimated age. If the system detected they looked younger than the set

4 min read
Child looking at phone

Privacy-preserving facial age estimation

As a parent, one wants young people to thrive and access the best of the online world. But the ease with which very young people can stumble across or access restricted, inappropriate or explicit content concerns me greatly.  In my role as Chief Regulatory and Policy Officer, I engage with regulators, businesses, politicians, charities and parents every day. I hear and read stories of young people who have been negatively impacted by what they have seen and experienced online; and see that whilst for many there are positive experiences, it is the vulnerable who are the hardest hit. It’s time

4 min read