Age Verification: Why It Matters for Your Business

Key Takeaways
 

Online age verification is essential to avoid penalties and comply with regulations like the EU's Digital Services Act

Implementing biometric solutions like Age Estimation enhances security and user experience in sensitive sectors such as online gaming and adult platforms

Ensuring proper age verification helps prevent fraud, protects minors, and maintains business reputation in regulated industries

Platforms like Didit enable global age verification, simplifying regulatory compliance and reducing costs by up to 70%

Age verification is a fundamental process in today's digital landscape that must go beyond simply reviewing (and verifying the legitimacy of) users' identity documents. In our increasingly digital environment, this technology serves as a protective barrier for platforms that must prevent access to minors.

Industries that typically require robust age verification solutions are well-known: adult content platforms, iGaming or gambling companies, and alcohol retailers, among other sectors. All must comply with strict regulations, protect against fraud, and preserve brand reputation.

In this article, we'll dive deep into the advantages, challenges, and impact that identity verification technology can have on your company. We'll cover it all!

Key Benefits of Age Verification

A solid age verification service helps businesses offering age-restricted products and services operate more securely in regulated environments.

Age verification solutions offer the following benefits:

• Regulatory Compliance. Regulatory pressure is increasing. For example, news from last May indicates that the European Commission has opened an investigation to protect minors from pornographic content, under the Digital Services Act. Failing to comply with regulations regarding minors can result in fines, license revocation, or reputational damage that's difficult to quantify.
• Enhanced Trust. Having a solid and robust age verification service can be seen as a sign of trustworthiness by users, who typically value companies' commitment to security and privacy very positively.
• Child Protection. Recent studies confirm that more than 10% of minors between 10 and 18 years old engage in online gambling. The problem, beyond the illegality itself, lies in the behaviors these actions can generate, such as gambling addiction in the medium and short term. Therefore, it's essential that companies integrate biometric solutions like Age Estimation or document control systems like ID Verification to ensure age restrictions are applied securely.

Sectors Where Age Verification is Critical

Age verification can be a determining factor for many sectors, including adult content platforms, financial services, gambling, or retail of age-restricted products.

• Adult or Pornographic Content. Age verification for adult content platforms is one of the most obvious cases. In Spain, for example, the CNMC (National Commission for Markets and Competition) fines various platforms daily for having deficient age verification systems, among other privacy issues. A robust system for verifying visitors' age that respects their privacy will allow sector companies to comply with regulations, avoid these sanctions, and offer safer environments for users.
• Gaming and Online Gambling. Ensuring that iGaming platform visitors meet the age of majority is essential for regulatory compliance and preventing minors from participating in activities that can create larger problems in the medium term, like the gambling addiction we mentioned earlier. In the gambling sector, age verification must be part of a much larger compliance strategy that validates user identity (through documentation and biometric checks) and complies with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CFT) regulations.
• Product Sales. Some products (like alcoholic beverages or tobacco) are restricted to adults only. Companies must incorporate solid controls to ensure these goods are only purchased by customers who truly exceed the minimum age established by law. Some countries even require specific licenses for selling alcoholic beverages online. A robust age verification solution allows businesses to operate safely and maintain their licenses.
• Financial Services. Some financial services are only eligible for those over 18/21 years old (depending on jurisdiction), making age verification a fundamental ally for regulatory compliance and preventing minors from operating in financial spaces where they shouldn't. Like in the iGaming sector, these companies (such as fintech, crypto companies, or even banking services) must comply with AML/CFT regulations, requiring greater identity verification diligence where age validation plays a fundamental role.

Challenges in Implementing Age Verification Solutions

Despite the many benefits, companies wanting to implement age verification solutions must face certain common challenges: issues related to user privacy, user experience, and cost.

• Privacy Concerns. Collecting sensitive user information can generate certain concerns for businesses and platforms. Additionally, users themselves may have worries about how their information is managed.
• User Experience. Offering complicated or excessively long processes to verify age can prevent customers from accessing services. Recent studies show that half of users leave if they're not provided with a comfortable onboarding process.
• Cost. Many companies consider that identity verification or age verification solutions must involve significant financial investment.

Why Companies Trust Didit for User Age Verification

Didit is the most advanced identity verification platform on the market, built for the AI era. More than 1,000 companies already trust us to verify their users' age thanks to offering a simple, flexible, open, and affordable alternative, with over 70% savings compared to other market alternatives.

How can you make Didit your ally for verifying your users' age? We offer global document coverage for more than 220 countries and territories, meaning your customers can prove who they are and their age regardless of where they're located.

All this comes with an identity verification flow completely adapted to your business's unique needs, allowing you to customize every detail and ensure your users comply with age majority regulations.

Another key feature is our Age Estimation, which uses biometrics and artificial intelligence analysis to estimate potential customers' age. Our system offers high precision with an estimation of ±3.5 years for most age ranges, ensuring validation without documents. In our technical documentation, you can find all information about Age Estimation.

Start Verifying Your Users' Age with Didit

Want to verify your users' age with Didit? You're just a few clicks away from helping your business comply with regulations and improve your process security. To do this, create an account in our Business Console at no cost and start verifying your users' identity with our free and unlimited KYC plan.

Click the banner below and start your Didit journey!