The e-commerce industry has skyrocketed as the COVID-19 pandemic made online businesses a new normal. Online businesses are required to constantly meet their customer’s demand in order to keep up with the market competition and maintain their clientele. A study conducted states that up to 2.14 billion people will be availing services and products online by the end of 2021. The surge in the demand for online businesses brings a lot of challenges and one such challenge is the need for an age verification solution acting as a robust and authentic age-gate for the protection of minors. In this blog, we will discuss how age verification is playing a part in protecting online businesses from age-restriction related frauds.
The Growth of Online Business
Online businesses serve all types of services and products to a huge range of clientele. The items regarding’s healthcare, clothing, electronics etc. can be found all over the internet. Whereas these products are not harmful or illegal to sell, there are also industries like alcohol and tobacco that are operating online. In the on-premises situation, the vendor is able to ensure the age of the buyer with observation and ID checks but the online setting makes it a bit difficult.
Online businesses have an ethical duty towards their society to ensure that minors aren’t exposed to anything harmful through their platform. In order to safeguard the children from age-restricted products, the most suitable solution would be age verification. Online age verification can ensure that digital fraudsters are not able to manipulate minors.
Digital Age Verification Significance
If minors get their hands on the age-restricted product being sold online, it can be damaging for the mental as well as the physical health of the person. For instance, a minor gets their hand on an illegal or prescribed drug online or some adult-themed content online? Without parental supervision, it can prove extremely harmful for the child. However, it is impossible for parents to keep an eye on their child 24/7. Today’s child, born in the digital revolution, knows many tricks to apply to get past the age checks. Even fraudsters online are also assisting the children to take part in such activities for their personal gains. Hence the protection of the minor equally befalls the online businesses as it on their parents. The global regulatory authorities have also regulated the online sector to verify their customers and ensure their age before dealing with them.
Digital Fraud in the Online sector
Digital fraud is used in various ways to steal the identity of the person so scammers can commit payment fraud. From stealing credit card credentials, synthetic identities, stolen identities, etc. the internet is full of such frauds. Minors on such platforms can be exposed to such fraudsters and end up compromising their identities and cost their parents a lot as well. Other than the threat of identity theft, the platforms can become a target of chargeback fraud. The child can buy products online from their parent’s credit card. Parents can reverse the transaction and the vendor is left to face the loss of their product as well as the money. The regulatory authority will also punish the vendor for not ensuring the identity of their clients and not enduring their age. Serious action is taken against the vendors who fail to verify the age of their clients and sell them an age-restricted product.
The Solution of Age Verification
The digital age verification process ensures that online businesses are only providing their services as well as their products to people that are of legal age. Age verification ensures that minors are not exposed to the age-restricted product or service that can be harmful to them. By verifying the identity of the individual, the solution is also able to verify the age of the customer. All the end-user has to do is submit a picture of their identity document along with their selfie and the AI-powered age verification solution will authentically and swiftly verify the identity as well as the age of the person.
