Age assurance
Articles
Feb 07, 2025
Verifying age with email address age estimation
As legislation increasingly serves to protect children online, businesses and platform operators require efficient and privacy-conscious methods to verify user ages. Email address verification is just one of these methods, leveraging email metadata to estimate a user’s age without collecting further personal information. This guide explores how email age estimation works, its reliability, regulatory compliance, and how it performs as a tool for businesses that wish to balance user experience and risk. What is email address age verification? Email address age verification is a method of age assurance used by websites and online operators to determine
Articles
Feb 05, 2025
Understanding age assurance in the UK’s Tobacco and Vapes Bill
In a significant move towards tightening regulations on tobacco and vaping products, the UK has introduced the Tobacco and Vapes Bill. Originally introduced by the previous Conservative government, the Bill has now been reintroduced by the new Labour government, signalling bipartisan support. The Bill aims to create a “smoke-free generation” by gradually raising the age of sale for tobacco and vaping products every year until they are completely phased out across the UK. What is the main aim of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill? The Tobacco and Vapes Bill seeks to tighten the regulatory framework around tobacco and
Articles
Feb 04, 2025
Age verification on adult websites: the facts
Key facts about age verification on adult websites: In the UK, adult websites have to comply with the Online Safety Act Ofcom is the regulator for online safety in the UK Other countries have introduced or are introducing age verification for adult content There are a number of different age verification methods available Age verification methods operate with the strictest privacy standards Some methods don’t require you to use an identity document As the internet continues to evolve, concerns about online safety, privacy, and ensuring age-appropriate content have become more important. A widely discussed issue in recent
Articles
Jan 20, 2025
Yoti responds to Ofcom’s final guidance on highly effective age assurance for Part 5 pornography providers
Ofcom has published the final guidance on highly effective age assurance for (Part 5) providers of pornography, under the Online Safety Act. There are a lot of good principles and effective guidance to ensure children are protected online and there is a clear deadline of July 2025 for all sites (be that pornography sites or social media platforms which allow pornography) to have age verification in place to prevent children from accessing adult content. We are pleased to see that Ofcom has listed several popular age assurance methods, such as facial age estimation, Digital ID wallets, and document verification,
Articles
Jan 15, 2025
Discussion paper: Where in the tech stack should age assurance sit and how should it be done?
This discussion paper discusses where in the tech stack should age assurance checks occur? Should they be on device on a software as a service (SAAS) basis, at operating system level, or at more than one level in the tech stack? Yoti’s view, weighing the factors discussed in this paper, is that the optimal placement of age assurance within the tech stack and consumer journey depends on balancing customer convenience, privacy and operational feasibility. DOWNLOAD
Articles
Dec 12, 2024
Yoti announces participation in the Australian Age Assurance Trial
On 28th November 2024, the Australian Government passed the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2024. This legislation will prevent anyone aged under 16 from accessing social media platforms. It aims to protect young users from harmful content and interactions. Set to begin in early 2025, the Age Assurance Technology Trial will test the effectiveness of age assurance technologies – spanning verification, estimation and inference. By testing various methods, the Australian Government hopes to identify robust and scalable solutions to enforce minimum age limits across platforms. Initial insight will be made available from April 2025 with a