Our members offer a wide range of methods of age assurance, many of which are demonstrated below.
Age Verification methods
Physical documents e.g. Passport or Driving Licence
AgeChecked
Physical ID
Let’s start with just using a drivers’ licence. You’d be redirected from the age-restricted website to one of our members, and then, as you see here, asked for a photo of your ID, and now a selfie, to check it matches. Then, there you go, it’s checked the ID is real and that the selfie is not AI generated, and the age verification service can now tell the website only that you are over 18 – not your name, not your photo, not even your date of birth; just a “yes” or “no”.
BlueCheck
Phone Verification
Or you can just enter your cell number, like this, because you’ll have used your number for lots of transactions only adults perform. We send a text code to your phone, and once that’s entered, the adult site is just given a simple “yes” that you are over 18 – no data shared.
Reusable digital ID
Luciditi
Reusable Digital ID
More and more people have access to a certified digital ID – including mobile Drivers Licenses. So, you can simply use that, usually by scanning a QR code on the website you wish to access, and giving the digital ID app permission to selectively disclose to that site only the fact that you are over 18.
Age Estimation method
Facial Age Estimation
A number of our members offer facial age estimation solutions.
Yoti
You don’t even need the ID if I you are few years over 18. You can just provide a selfie, like this. Then the software estimates your age – the best solutions get it right within 1-2 years on average. This can all be done in an app on your phone so the selfie never even leaves the palm of your hand – in any case, its immediately deleted, then the site is simply told you are old enough.
Email Estimation
VerifyMy
Alternatively, you can simply enter your email address. Your email address will be used to estimate your age (e.g. 13+, 16+, 18+) by reviewing sites and apps where you’ve previously used this email address.
Estimating a user’s age using their email address is frictionless, privacy-preserving, and works without discernible bias. Listed by Ofcom as a highly effective age assurance method, it can be used by anyone with an active email address, irrespective of gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality or any other discriminatory trait.
A platform can deploy an email address check in two ways. Firstly, if they have already collected an email address as part of an account creation process, the email address was authenticated, and the user is logged in, it can be deployed entirely in the background using existing PII and without any user interaction required. With almost every online user already having an email address, this method has close to 100% coverage, and, therefore, it can be highly effective at estimating the age of a large proportion of a website’s user base with minimal or even zero disruption to a user journey.
Alternatively, if the platform holds no user data or the user is not logged in, then the method can be deployed as part of a list of age verification methods as an age gate. In this instance, the check can only be completed alongside an additional anti-spoofing measure, where the user will need to prove that they have ownership of that specific email address via a time-sensitive one-time passcode.
Hand Movement Estimation
BorderAge
Another option works in a similar way but the estimate is based on how you move your hands, rather than a mathematical map of your face. Medical research has linked the age of an individual to the physiological features of certain hand movements, so you simply follow the instructions and the system can estimate your age range