Age-restricted trade legislation is intricate and dynamic. It is the obligation of your business to keep juveniles away from adult-targeted e-commerce goods and services. It's no longer sufficient to demonstrate diligence by verifying a customer's date of birth.

Sophisticated, reliable, and fast identity verification solutions are becoming a must. Your business must combine age verification software with in-depth knowledge of the veracity of the identity documents and personal information being submitted. This will help in complying with regulatory standards and prevent fraud.

What Is An Age Verification Software?

Age verification software is made specifically for age-restricted online businesses. Examples of these businesses are; lotteries, social media, certain healthcare services, and online gaming. They are also made for the onboarding and checkout processes for online sales of age-restricted commodities such as alcohol and cigarettes. Additionally, they must adhere to COPPA, KYC, and AML regulations.

By verifying the minimum age standards and relevant identity documents, an identity verification solution aids in discouraging patronage from underage consumers.

There are several types of age verification systems. With APIs that enable interaction with other corporate systems, it can be a part of an all-encompassing identity verification solution. It might be a specialized tool that complements other software and serves this sole purpose. As an alternative, there are digital goods specifically designed for online age verification and solutions for offline field use.

The methods used to provide age verification can differ just as much as the applications that require it. Some systems place a strong emphasis on document validation and database checks. This includes government and credit organizations. Others have live agent interactions and video calls.

How Does Age Verification Software Work?

A person's age can be checked using a variety of methods via identity verification solutions. The majority of KYC checks, including age verification, focus on examining official documents like

• Passports
• Licenses
• and other types of government identification.

Customers are expected to provide their date of birth and other relevant documents. Documents and photos that have been scanned are then approved. Occasionally, a digital process needs the user to send a selfie shot or video along with their paperwork(s).

The actual checks, which consult credit files or government databases, are frequently automated. Systems direct all or a portion of these verifications for manual human evaluation in specific circumstances.

A growing number of people are using AI-based systems that analyze a user's face to determine their age. These alone are insufficient to guarantee KYC compliance. However, they are occasionally used to automate demands for additional human checks or an ID in settings like nightclubs and self-service checkouts.

Why Are Identity Verification Tools Important For Your Online Business?

For many businesses, day-to-day operations include KYC verification, of which online age verification is a crucial component. It's an issue of legal compliance for many, particularly financial institutions, gambling companies, and fintech. It's essential for reducing fraud as well.

Additionally, age verification enables businesses that provide products and services with age restrictions to adhere to the law and protect children. This can include online sales and delivery or for BOPIS. These are both significant channels for many retailers due to local demands.

Online age verification aids e-commerce companies in avoiding chargeback fees brought on by parents. This is in response to unpermitted transactions made by their children. Despite strict regulations for payment card verification, the majority of minors can easily get through these procedures in notorious ways.

Businesses cannot guarantee that their goods and services are suitable for the end user without an age verification system. What happens if a 14-year-old purchases weapons from an internet gun shop? Or if kids are given smokes from an online tobacco retailer! Since teens and minors participating in adult-rated activities harms both their physical and mental health, the results could be concerning. Additionally, there is a greater risk to the organization supplying these resources. The use of technology among juveniles is on the rise. So the need for an effective identity validation solution must follow suit.

How To Deploy Better Identity Validation Solution?

Cost reduction and lowering friction for legitimate clients are two top reasons for installing better age verification technologies. You can utilize pre-KYC checks to weed out individuals who don't require a full verification process. This could be because they are obviously fraudulent or unfit and it's an excellent technique to accomplish these objectives.

Businesses can gain access to useful information by using techniques like data enrichment, velocity checks, and device fingerprinting. This may mean that not every customer needs to go through the most intensive version of the process.

Think about the following instances:

• Solutions for data enrichment or device fingerprinting may trigger enough concerns to disqualify a customer without doing any additional checks.
• Based on data and papers already possessed, a customer may be permitted to pass through a KYC solution that keeps track of previous checks. Similarly, large organizations with numerous departments can frequently cut expenses and boost productivity by making sure systems interact with one another.

You might wish to implement mild KYC or heavy CDD or EDD procedures, including age verification. This depends on what these pre-KYC checks reveal.

The most important thing is to carefully navigate the normal customer path. You should remove friction points that are unneeded while making sure all compliance boxes are checked. With this approach to identity validation solutions, fraud protection and age verification compliance can work together to protect both your business's integrity and your clients.