The internet has just changed the world. Now you can buy anything online- groceries, clothing, family pets, and even flights abroad. But, as businesses are shifting to the digitalized era, what would happen if the services or goods they provide had an age restriction? This is exactly where age verification comes in. Before we explore its applications in different businesses, let’s look at what age verification means?
Age verification solution screens the identity document of the customer/user to verify that the information that they have provided about their age is authentic or not. The process can be carried out manually or through an automated process. The manual verification process is not preferred because of the great probability of human error and the other reason is that it is hefty. Thus, online age verification is done to check the age of customers remotely wherever they live.
How Age Verification Online is Performed?
Online age verification is a quick process that gives results within a few minutes and that is how they save time as well as effort of the compliance officer.
- The customer is asked to provide their date of birth and show the identity document on which their DOB is mentioned.
- The system then screens that document and compares the date of birth mentioned on the document with the one provided by the customer.
- As the verification process is completed, its results are shown to the customer and are also updated in a back office.
Applications of Age Verification in Different Businesses
It is a misconception that only gaming industries need age verification but the reality is all those platforms that deal with age-restricted products are required to verify age of their customers. Here is the list of those businesses that require you to verify the age of their clients.
Gaming Websites
Gaming websites are under strict inspection by regulatory authorities. They are required to do KYC and KYCC on the gamers before onboarding them. The reason is to lessen gaming addiction among the young generation and also because such games are not good for any underage kids. Thus, age verification helps them to retain legitimate clients and keep minors at bay.
E-Commerce Spaces
The E-Commerce platforms have so many products among which some are suitable youngsters while some are not. These platforms have a tough time managing their clients as the age-verification regulations are imposed on them. So, age verification solution is an efficient solution to prevent seamless age-related risks.
Hospitals and Drug Stores
Medical stores provide medicines, some of which are age-restricted. They are either fatal or cause addiction in kids. So, they need to run age checks to make sure that the medicine they are selling is not age-restricted.
Online Lottery Websites
Using stolen identities of minors for the purpose of onboarding online lottery websites is a common practice. Such websites are used by criminals to clean their black money. If such websites do not run age verification, they would have to pay penalties. Thus, such websites need to be age verified to avoid heavy fines as well as reputational losses.
NGOs and Government Pension Funds
Such organizations offer beneficiary programs to senior citizens which include health benefits, pensions, tax deductions, food tokens, etc. Criminals just take advantage of the ID cards of innocent citizens to get benefits illegally. Thus, these entities are required to perform KYC, including age verification, to eliminate the loss of needy people.
Legal Sector
All the legal sectors are required to perform KYC and AML screening to comply with AML regimes. At certain times, a legal representative is in such a condition that their rights are transferred to an individual once she/he reaches a specific age. In such scenarios, many people use a fake ID and manipulate the legal representative.
Age verification is the best solution in this case that would help a legal representative in a smooth KYC including the age verification process within just a minute. It actually makes the verification process easy for the customer as well as the legal representative.
Moreover, government agencies can run age verification to e-vote. It would reduce the cost, hassle, and fraud in the election process.
Final Thoughts
The benefits of the age verification process are just beyond the understanding of the masses. Several businesses can use an age verification solution to enhance their client retention as well as prevent fraud. This would surely help the business to streamline its security procedures by onboarding authentic customers.
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