Age assurance is the umbrella term for the technologies used to check whether someone is old enough, or young enough, to buy a product, use a service or see certain content. There are three main approaches:
- Age verification confirms your date of birth against an authoritative source, such as an identity document, your bank or the electoral roll.
- Age estimation calculates your approximate age from characteristics such as your facial features or voice, without learning who you are.
- Age inference draws a conclusion from facts already established about you, for example that you hold a mortgage, so you cannot be a child.
Each solution delivers a different level of confidence, and regulators decide the level required for each situation. Society has traditionally required those who sell certain products, services and content to restrict by age. In the early days of the internet, these laws were not imposed online. Age assurance is closing the gap between the real and virtual world.