The AgeAware ecosystem, operated by the non-profit organisation, euCONSENT ASBL, enables interoperability across age assurance providers so a single age check can be re-used on multiples sites and apps.
Participating age assurance providers who have been independently audited and certified to deliver reliable age checks offer their users the option to accept a token that is stored on their device, and can be read by other participating providers, negating the need to do a fresh age check when accessing another digital service.
The user experience – first age check
When a user first seeks access to an age-restricted website, the age assurance provider contracted by that site (or app) opens a mini-app (technically, for example, a Progressive Web App (‘PWA’) rather than an app you need to download from the app store).
The user is then asked which method of age assurance they wish to use. The options available to them will be determined by the age assurance provider in discussion with their client app/website. It might be only the methods offered by that AA provider, but it could include methods offered by other providers who are part of the AgeAware ecosystem. So a traditional age verification provider could collaborate with an age estimation provider to offer facial age estimation alongside its own document checks for example,
Having selected the method, the user can then select the provider, if there is more than one on offer for that particular method. Again, the primary age assurance provider may determine this in discussion with their client.
The user then completes the age check and can either just access the service, or can agree to an offer to create an AgeAware account which will allow them to re-use that check in the future.
The video below shows this first process in action:
The user experience – repeat use of an age check at a later date
If the user does create an account, then the next time they access an age-restricted site, it may not require any further action at all on behalf of the user apart from proving they are still the same user – a process we call authentication. The age assurance provider to the new site – which may not be the same provider who did the first age check – checks that there is a token held on the device (in the PWA) and if it is recent enough and of a sufficient level of age assurnace, then the user does a quick face ID check given access straight away. The video below shows how this works:
The user experience – moving from one site to another seemlessly
And the system also allows the user to jump between age-restricted sites without any further action on their behalf.
In the background the AgeAware system is managing two other essential processes:
Anonymisation Service
This makes sure that when the age check tokens are transmitted from the user to the service they are accessing no personal identifying informaiton has been added to the payload. This enables this system to be “double-blind” – so the website/app cannot discover the identity of the user, and the age assurance provider cannot discover which sites their users are visiting.
Tallying Service
This keeps a simple count of the number of times an age assurance provider’s age check is used by any website or app, and if that was direct or via a competing provider. That allows those providers to invoice the relying parties for their services and to pay commission to their competitors for re-using their age check
Commercial Operations
The AgeAware solution does not have any involvement in the commercial arrangements between age assurance providers and their clients or between providers.
A provider will still compete to sell their service to clients, and determine their pricing structure. They will then also negotiate with other providers to be able to re-use their existing age checks, presumably in return for a commission payment.
The tallying service faciliates the billing to clients and between providers. As the number of providers grows, it is likely that a separate orchestration service could assist with managing the clearance of payments, offsetting between proivders.