Online Age verification has now become a major and daunting challenge for several industries. However, it is an immediate need for online platforms to protect their businesses from inappropriate consumer traffic. For this, a number of regulations are enforcing industries to take stringent measuring in support of refraining the under-age community from using disproportionate online platforms. In December 2018, the UK government has passed a law according to which renders and online businesses need to impose age verification measures to allow only adult traffic on their system. These are strictly for the online stores that sell age-restricted items openly without age verification.
Businesses find it a complex task to verify the age of consumers online because clever minors find hacks and take inappropriate actions which makes it hard to differentiate between illegal and legal aged consumers. While taking in action the determination of minors who buy age-restricted products should be encountered by implementing strict age checks. These checks should be processed at the time of online account registration. This can reduce the ventures of under-age traffic onto adult platforms and online services.
Following are the platforms thata re most influenced by minors and need to comply with local regulators to perform electronic identity verification:
Online Gaming Platform:
Online video games are of high interest in the under-age community. Excessive gaming remains bad impact on the children. A report says that children are getting myopia after spending hours on online gaming. Tencent, a China-based internet services company has 500 million gamers online only in China. It has taken this news on a serious note and is now taking action of embedding online age verification software to verify the age of the user first and then allow services. According to the China government, children having age up to 12, can play games for one hour and the ones with age ranging between 13 and 18 can play games for two hours. Now to comply with the local regulators it is mandatory to verify the age before providing online gaming permission. This would reduce the adverse effects of emerging health issues among children.
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Social Networking Platform:
Social networking platforms not only include Facebook, SnapChat, Instagram or Twitter but also online dating sites are prone to the involvement of minors. These sites are a source of disconcertment for children who are below the legal age (varies between 18 to 21 based on region). Tender, a social dating examined the under-age community on the site. It has now integrated age verification software to verify the users before registration to make sure that no illegal entity becomes part of their system. Also, using fake identities, minors try to approach such websites which should be totally banned as it leaves bad impact on children’s minds and can be risky at the same time.
Online Age-restricted Products Providers:
under-age community approach e-stores to buy restricted products. These products include; e-cigarettes, vapes, alcohol, cannabis, heroin, and similar drugs, age-restricted DVDs, and weapons. They approach online stores because of restrictions at brick and mortar stores. A report says that most children use credit cards of their parents without permission and perform transactions. Online stores are affected by regulatory fines when they are caught selling age-restricted products to minors. To combat the risks of monetary and reputational loss, it is mandatory to embed age verification checks before proceeding with the customer with the transaction.
It is a legal requirement for online retailers and companies to take this issue beforehand. Any discrepancy can subject to harsh regulatory penalties that could definitely cost them more than the installation cost of an identity verification software.
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