The AVPA’s position is that good age assurance regulation should require:
- A choice of methods, so no one is forced to use ID or any single technique
- Data minimisation, collecting only what the check requires
- No unnecessary retention, with any legally required retention still minimised, time limited, documented and audited
- Independent testing and certification against published standards
- Fairness testing across demographic groups, with results published where possible
- Accessibility so everyone can prove their age-range one way or another and therefore inclusive so no protected characteristic leads to exclusion
- Clear alternative methods or appeal routes when a check is wrong
- Anti-circumvention controls, including limits on retries and spoofing defences
- Interoperability and reusable proofs, so users check once and reuse the result
- Clear accountability for both the relying platform and the age assurance provider
Regulation built on this checklist answers criticisms of age assurance by design, and gives authorities a concrete benchmark against which any deployment can be judged.