AGE VERIFICATION

VALUE ADDED SERVICES

Age of chance

Age verification used to be a dirty word in Telemedia, but now the industry is a strong advocate for it across the web – and it can drive demonstrable benefits in many sectors. Paul Skeldon investigates The internet is a dangerous IMPACT ON BUSINESS we add an AGEify protection filplace and protecting kids from All online businesses that are ter at any step of your customer’s its darker side is imperative. But age-sensitive should embrace AV journey – home page, specific so too is protecting businesses as it not only helps them meet pages, checkout page, etc. Then. from under-age users, who can the law, protect the young and whenever your customers try see them breaking increasingly- vulnerable and protect their to access one of the protected stringent laws governing inter- own standing, but it also drives pages, they can easily unlock net use, as well as potentially revenues. it in under five seconds if they racking up huge bills that their While only adolescent boys already have an AGEify account. parents don’t want to pay. denied access to tube sites would If not, they can prove their age

For these reasons, more busi- complain, most of us welcome with us using one of the multiple nesses than ever are turning to in principle age verification for supported methods, such as face Age Verification (AV) and many web use – the issue is how to recognition, document scanning, telemedia companies are get- do it without revealing anyone’s credit card validation, physical ting on board. identity. checks, integration with other ID

Checking the age of users is The way around this is to have providers.” increasingly a legal obligation. an account with an AV provider Part of how AGEify makes this In France, there is now a so- so that they have your details, so happen is through relationships called ‘porn ban’ in place, echo- they can unlock the site for you, with other organisations. It coing much of Europe’s stance on and the site owners never get to operates via a mutually fruitful making users register to use see who you are, only that you way with a rapidly evolving adult sites. The UK lags behind are old enough to be there. network of affiliate organizations as the government reneged on Another typical example is – including banks, insurance its plan to introduce a similar AGEify from Upcom. It describes companies, telecom operators scheme, but it will come. how its system works. etc – in order to verify the actual “You register your website, and age of the visitors of a website

or a place, without asking or revealing any other personal information.

BOOST TO GAMING

Take a look at the gambling sector. Gaming business, Savvygamblers, has experienced a 40% increase in website visitors following the implementation of fully compliant age verification software.

The company owns two affiliate websites – Bigtimegamingfreeplay.com and Megawaysslotsonline.com. Both aim to drive traffic for the slot provider Big Time Gaming and for slot providers with the Megaways license respectively. Visitors to the sites can try out the providers’ games for free.

New regulatory legislation means that even free-to-play games need to ensure robust age verification in the UK. Savvygamblers therefore recognised the need to make its sites fully compliant in order to futureproof its business model. The objective: prevent underage users from accessing the games, whilst maintaining a smooth and straightforward user journey for adult players.

The business brought AgeChecked on board – an online age verification specialist. AgeChecked’s system works by requiring users to verify their age using reliable evidence such as a driving license or credit card statements.

Nigel Hall, CEO of Savvygamblers, says: “Our users know that, after having entered their details once, all future visits to the websites will be quick and easy – hence the increase in visitor numbers. It’s been a great move for us.”