Among the online consumer base, minors are mostly at risk of fraud – especially identity theft. Even though regulators in most countries have ensured industries practice appropriate verification methods, fraudsters are still taking advantage of innocents.
However, outdated verification methods still seem to be on online platforms – as they are proven to be more criminal-friendly rather than consumer-friendly.
Failure to overcome criminal activities that are putting children at significant risk is growing significantly. Therefore the question is, “Why are businesses not taking the age verification checks seriously?”
Needless to say, all businesses strive to provide their customers with a frictionless online experience. Because most verification checks require a manual oversight that drives up the cost and time.
Moreover, manual oversight is not sufficient enough to screen each individual for who they really are. Although there have been some automated solutions in the market like 2Factor and KBA (Knowledge-Based Authentication), sophisticated hackers could easily bypass the system.
You might wonder among all business types, “Why are age-restricted products or service providers at the most risk and have higher chances of failure?” With age verification check tools installed at these businesses, it lets most people of any age enter their site through a simple age verification check.
For instance, a site might ask the consumer “If you are 18 years old”. Clicking this gets people age-verified and provides them with instant access to their online portal.
Why Adopt Automated Age Verification Rather Than Manual Age Verifier
Countries have adopted strict regulations since age-restricted products or services became legal for consumption. The regulations restrict selling age-restricted goods or services to minors. According to some regulations, the minimum age to consume some age-sensitive products is 18 years old.
However, these laws also apply to online stores that sell the same products or services. But rather than a shopkeeper who needs to see an ID to verify their age – online stores ask users to enter their username and password as age verification checks.
It becomes quite challenging for online stores to correctly verify who’s above or under the legal age. Because of growing concern, children could use their parent’s ID to buy age-restricted goods or services. For this reason, only, it’s immensely important for online businesses to keep minors protected from using age-restricted products or services.
Since consuming these products could give businesses a bad reputation. On the other hand, online age verification methods are going through a constant evolution that presents a massive opportunity for businesses to integrate smart age verification tools.
Nowadays, biometric technology coupled with document verification and address verification provides an easy and simple verification process for both consumers and businesses. Unlike manual verification which took several days to verify customers – automated age verification can perform checks in mere seconds.
The automated age verifier tool uses artificial intelligence to vet individuals with multiple authentication checks – more than the manual age verification process.
How Digital Age Verification Can Weed Out Bad Customers
Online age verification solution helps with onboarding authentic customers through various identity checks like login and transaction authentication. To verify age online, the online tool works exceptionally well to prevent fraudsters or scammers from entering into the system.
Bypassing this type of identity verification solution becomes increasingly complex – even for some of the most sophisticated criminals. Here are a few steps that the digital age verification process consists of:
Authenticating Date of Birth
The consumer has to fill out a few details like name, address, and date of birth on an automatically generated online form. This way all personal details are verified by the system.
Submitting Documents Online
The system asks the consumer to upload their government-issued documents like an image of their driving license or passport. After uploading documents on the platform, the system automatically verifies the document after properly scanning.
Extracting Information From Documents With OCR
Within the age verification, the OCR engine helps to automatically scan and extract the user’s personal information like name, address, and date of birth. The system automatically checks the authenticity of the document.
Verification of Results
After all age verification checks that verify the originality of the document and the information contained within – the secure age verification procedure is complete. Ultimately, the end-user is either verified or not verified in the final stage. Minimum age requirements are changing constantly for various industries.
Therefore, organizations need to integrate an airtight age verification tool that would prevent underage children from purchasing age-restricted products or services. The suite of age verification tools serves as a strong deterrent against minors who try to purchase age-restricted goods or services.