It is imperative for online businesses selling age-appropriate services and products to install age-verification software on their website. This is essential to ensure that their products remain out of reach of underage kids and comply with federal regulatory authorities.
In the last two decades, the internet has made age-appropriate products and offerings such as tobacco, alcohol, cannabis, online gambling, dating platforms, weapons, sports betting, and other adult-oriented content quite accessible to the masses.
Regardless of a company’s standing, they are morally and legally obligated to keep its content and products away from underage kids. That is where an age verification solution comes into play.
Importance of Age Verification System
You may think that age verification popups should be enough to keep kids off websites they have no business visiting. Still, unfortunately, that is not how it works.
In contrast, this step makes children and teenagers curious about the website and why they are prohibited from logging on.
This is where an online age-verification system can benefit individual sellers and companies offering age-appropriate goods online. With the help of an age-verification solution, the website effectively determines the age and identity of the user while prohibiting them from logging on if the site isn’t meant for their use.
An age verification software will quickly gather public resources to verify the visitor’s age or ask them to send in their image or a video so that live agents can verify their age.
For instance, you’re running an alcohol business which requires you to ensure you’re not selling your bottles online to underage customers. If at any point an underage kid visits to place an order, the age verification system will determine their identity and will reject their order placement if they turn out to be underage.
Companies are bound to comply with this regulation as a federal rule and a moral obligation. All the sellers who comply with regulatory authorities get extra credits and are promoted for being highly compliant.
4 Things to Consider When Choosing an Age-Verification Software
Integrating an identity verification solution in your website will seem easy. But you may need to learn that a certain amount of research has to be conducted before you can finally give the go-ahead to verification software.
If such an idea is new to you, chances are you don’t know the factors you must consider before choosing an age-verification system. So, to make it easier for you, you must consider a few factors.
-
Understand Your Requirements
The factor that drives your decision to choose the best age-verification solution is your business’s requirements. Some of the things you must take into account before choosing an age-verification software include
- The industry you belong to
- Your customers’ profiles
- Type of online engagements
- User experience
All these factors will determine what kind of age-verification software you need and how it must function to provide optimal results. Then, you also need to keep in perspective that every industry has its own set of regulations to follow. What may have worked for a dating platform might not work for you if you’re selling alcohol online.
So, you must bring in several stakeholders from your company to make this decision. Ask them to enlist their requirements from the age-verification system and how they need it to function. Once you know what the requirements are, you should be able to find identity verification companies that offer systems with the required features and functionality.
-
Track Consumer Behavior
Before you finalize an age-verification software, you must analyze and track consumer behavior on your website. Check the insights of your websites and figure out what devices customers use to access their websites. Whether they visit from mobile phones or desktop computers, or laptops.
This age-verification software you choose must maintain an omnichannel presence across all platforms. You need to figure out the right software integration at the planning stage while keeping all the mediums in mind.
Every gadget has its own set of challenges. So, whichever age-verification software you choose, it should work flawlessly across every device on the planet.
-
Functionality & Features
Once you know everything that is required of the age-verification system, it is now time to look for a software that offers your required functions and features. While you may have to compromise on some features based on cost-effectiveness, there are a few fundamental functions you cannot overlook, such as
- Customizability
- Verification providers
- Context
- Visibility
You should be able to customize the software as per your needs, and it should access data for verification from authorized sources. Similarly, it should have maximum visibility across all channels while allowing you to analyze links when a user disconnects.
-
Maximum Usability
Finally, the system you opt for identity verification should be pairable with every other system in your mainstream network. You must understand what other systems are in your network and how they will affect your software’s usability.
For instance, if you look at the age-verification system from the engineering point of view, you should be able to deploy the software effortlessly into the system and customize it if needed in the future accordingly.
Similarly, is it complying with the regulatory authorities, and whether it has a no-code approach or not? These factors will determine if your software will need external sources to run effortlessly or if your team can do it themselves.
Final Thoughts
An age-verification system is crucial for your business regardless of what you’re offering as long as it is age-restricted. It can be anything from marijuana to alcohol or a legal or finance website. Several ecommerce platforms have also realized the importance of having age-verification software to ensure their credibility.
So, to ensure you don’t end up with a lawsuit, find an age-verification system that works well with your business. It should be user-friendly and ensure maximum security against under-age accessibility. You should also wisely determine the age threshold to ensure no false positives.
An age-verification system will help you oblige your moral and legal responsibilities while maintaining your company’s reputation and keeping fraudsters at bay.