A study reveals nearly 29% of e-commerce sales are conducted online via mobile phones highlighting the difficulty to channelize who’s accessing services and emphasizing the need for robust age verification to combat this issue.
In today’s fast-paced world where technology is advancing substantially, people are becoming more dependent on technology and many industries are shifting their services & product delivery online. Online interactions have streamlined user experience in many ways including enhanced accessibility, unparalleled convenience, and real-time connectivity. However, it’s crucial to ensure safety and security, particularly regarding age-restricted services and products.
Technological innovation has made it easier for minors to bypass online verification and get access to age-exclusive services & products. Age verification has become paramount for online businesses to comply with legal regulations and avert heavy fines and penalties. The age check process plays a pivotal role in safeguarding minors from the negative consequences of accessing explicit content and warding them off from age-restricted products like alcohol, tobacco, or cannabis.
Age-Restricted Industries
As most businesses are shifting their services online, it’s imperative to authenticate users and know their right age before granting them access to services. Many industries are deemed age-restricted companies due to the nature of their services and products. These industries are mandated to develop robust age verification systems to comply with legal and ethical standards.
Numerous businesses are considered age-restricted, a few of them are briefly expanded here, and why they need to conduct robust age verification.
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Online Gambling Sites
Certain jurisdictions mandate the minimum age for participating in gambling activities 21 while others restrict the minimum age to 18. In the United States, there are many regulations and restrictions governing online gambling. The market for online gambling in the US was authorized in 2021 and experienced substantial growth. Sport Betting Dime reveals that the ‘New York State Gaming Commission’ recorded a total of $2.1 billion in online sports betting in November 2023, breaking October’s record of $2.006 billion.
Studies indicate that minors get attracted to online gambling and it’s crucial to prevent them by verifying the age of users. Accurately authenticating users could prevent users from the later consequences and help businesses prevent legal implications. Given the need, online gambling site operators in the UK have tightened their age verification regulations to ward off underage from accessing services.
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Alcohol & Tobacco Sales
The United States has declared a minimum age to purchase alcohol and tobacco products such as nicotine gels, hookah pipes, cigarettes, and smokeless cigarettes. The bare minimum age that is defined for such products is 21 and the merchants are required to effectively verify the age of customers to maintain compliance with legal standards. Minor negligence can drive underage access to alcohol products and merchants have to pay heavy fines for non-compliance. To avoid any legal consequences and safeguard minors, it’s crucial to conduct efficient age checks to know who the actual consumers are.
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Pharmaceuticals Industry
Online pharmacies have made it easier for patients to get their medications quickly without visiting stores. But it has also given rise to underage access to restricted pharmaceuticals. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) indicates that inappropriate and misuse of medicated drugs is potentially increasing. The use of prescribed drugs by underage for non-medical reasons reached 4.5% in 2020, highlighting the need to effectively verify the reasons behind drug purchases.
Fraudulent activities including medical identity theft and alterations in medical records are exponentially increasing as fraudsters are leaving no stone unturned to fulfill their illicit goals. Pharmaceutical industries and healthcare sectors are required to develop robust identity verification technologies integrated with advanced AI algorithms to ensure the right individuals are getting access to medicated products. Non-compliance can lead to serious consequences and subject to heavy penalties.
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Online Dating Services
Finding love in today’s modern world has stretched far beyond meeting someone face-to-face and transitioned towards online interactions. Dating apps have streamlined this process offering a new world of opportunities and connecting emotions across countries and even beyond continents. Romance scams and fraudulent activities are prevalently increasing with great dependence on online dating, raising issues of minors’ safety in online communities. Rigorous age checks and robust age verification regulations could save minors from falling victim to romance scams and save hundreds of thousands of dollars.
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Social Media Platforms
Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube have garnered significant attention than ever before. These platforms come forth as a forum for enhanced user interactions, connectivity, networking, and content sharing. However, serious concerns regarding the exposure of harmful content to minors and privacy data breaches have been raised. Effective age verification checks and implementation of robust AI-driven tools in the systems could save minors from exposure to explicit content and ensure their mental well-being.
Last Word
Many jurisdictions globally have developed effective regulations governing age verification and require businesses to comply with these regulations to safeguard underage from age-exclusive services and products. ‘The Digital Economy Act 2017’ established by the UK emphasizes online explicit content producers to conduct effective age verification checks to prevent minors from watching explicit content. This highlights the seriousness of the concerns and mandates age-restricted industries to be responsible enough to regulate who’s accessing their services and who needs to be restricted.