Digital platforms, especially social media websites, have been long subjected to criticism when it comes to their lax practices data protection and user rights protection but the debate took a whole new turn recently when it was revealed that underage users were able to gain access on platforms such as Tinder as there was no full-proof system to identify the true age and identity of users that signed up on these online dating platforms. But the increased scrutiny for these services have created an urgent need among the online businesses to adopt measures to check the identity of their customers and if not all facets of their identity can not be verified then at least the age of the new users has to be vetted. Following are the 4 industries or online business categories that need to implement a swift age verification solution.
Online Gaming Industry
The expense of online gaming industry has grown at unprecedented scale in past few years with platforms like Twitch introducing new innovations in online gaming and how users from multiple countries can come together to enjoy their passion for online gaming. But most of the online games have hugely adult and violent graphic content present in them ranging from character outfits to the online gaming actions. So it is important for these online gaming platforms to ensure that age-sensitive content and games designed for a certain age group are not accessible to the underage audience. Streaming services allowing users to share their gaming routines with their online followers can also make sure that there is no underage user present among the audience.
Age Restrictive Media
The urgent need to strengthen age verification on age restrictive portals cannot be stressed more with the majority of teenagers having access to a smartphone and internet connection. Digital media have given access to a range of violent and adult categories of content that is not feasible for viewership of selected audience. Jurisdiction wise restrictions about the kind of content that can be displayed to the age-specific audience also have to be taken into consideration.
So for an online content portal offering age restrictive content that does not want to be penalized by official authorities, there is the urgent need to strengthen age verification protocols.
Dating Websites
As discussed above the online dating platform are the main reason why the oversight and need of an age verification solution were felt for the first time. As the scandal broke that there are no proper checks available at such websites and apps to determine the true identity and age of incoming users and that certain underage users were exposed to predators and delinquents, something that is a punishable offense in many parts of the world.
For online businesses earning a significant amount of revenue from these online users, a smartly devised age verification solution is a feature.
Social Media Websites
The biggest number of users on both desktop and mobile devices use the internet to access social media websites. Now the majority of these social media websites lack an accurate age verification solution to ensure that age claimed by their incoming users is accurate or not. For websites such as Quora or Medium, age verification seems to be not necessary but for platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, Age verification is not only important to keep out underage users but to ensure that teenagers are kept at a safe distance from online users posting adult or restrictive content.
Conclusion
Social responsibility has to be embraced by large online businesses that turn billions in revenue and valuation because of the very users that they have little to no regard when it comes to privacy or protection from content that is not feasible for a certain age group. Identity documents proclaiming the true age of the users or the identity document of their parents along with a written consent has to be adopted as the preferred form of age verification by these online businesses need to protect their underage users from age-restricted content as well as users that they have no need to get in touch with and this point alone stresses towards the urgent need to strengthen age verification solutions on these digital platforms.