The Age Appropriate Design Code.
Read our Age Appropriate Design Code report for a comprehensive overview on how the AADC will impact your business.
What is the Age Appropriate Design Code (Children’s code)?
The Age Appropriate Design Code (AADC), sets out 15 standards for online services that process personal data and are likely to be accessed by children in the UK. Standard 3 of the AADC which focuses specifically on ‘Age appropriate application’ states that companies need to take a ‘risk-based approach to recognising the age of individual users and effectively’.
In order to comply with the AADC you will need to:
- Consider if any of your content or services could risk the moral, physical or mental well-being of children under 18
- If so, put in place proportional age verification measures to safeguard them
The use of VerifyMyAge's PAS 1296:2018 Certified approach is considered by us, if properly implemented by the client, to be objective evidence of conformity with the AADC requirements for Age Assurance. This would add significant value to services applying the 15 principles of the AADC.”
Tony Allen, Chief Executive Officer at Age Check Certification Scheme.
Who does the Age Appropriate Design Code affect?
The AADC applies largely to any business or “information society services likely to be accessed by children”, that has either been established in the UK or targets UK users.
Companies that operate streaming services, social media sites, or provide online gaming, video, films, music, education technology or connected toys will be the most affected. The AADC will also impact online retailers and require the need for age appropriate retargeting onsite.
These standards will provide built-in protection to allow children to explore, learn and play online, ensuring their best interests are the primary consideration of designers and developers for online services.
Move to the left and right.
When did the Age Appropriate Design Code come into force?
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) began enforcing the Children’s code on the 2 September 2021. Businesses that fail to implement the AADC are effectively in breach of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) and the UK GDPR. For serious breaches, the ICO has the power to issue steep financial penalties, which include:
- Fines of up to €20 million (or £17.5 million when the UK GDPR comes into effect)
- Or 4% of annual worldwide turnover, whichever is higher
This code seeks to protect children within the digital world, not protect them from it.”
Elizabeth Denham CBE,
Information Commissioner
Official partnership with the ACCS.
The Age Check Certification Scheme is a UKAS accredited Conformity Assessment Body & nonprofit providing independent certification services to businesses who need to check ID or ages of their customers.
It is the only approved certification scheme for the Age Appropriate Design Code under Article 42 of UK GDPR by the Information Commissioner.
ACCS
Approved by the internationally recognised standards of the Age Check Certification Scheme.
ICO
The Age Appropriate Design Code (AADC), sets out 15 standards for online services that process personal data and are likely to be accessed by children in the UK.
The Challenge.
The AADC presents 3 age assurance problems. To address these problems, we've segmented them into the following:
The easiest to solve - we've performed millions of age verifications for some of the biggest brands so this is business as usual for us.
Easy to solve using our existing technology and expanding our age assurance eco-system with additional AI partners.
Inaccurate AI due to the lack of ground-truth (biometric data accompanied by authenticated identity documentation to verify age) data, and minors not being of legal age to consent to their data being processed.
The Solution.
Age Assurance Ecosystem
VerifyMyAge works with a comprehensive range of technology partners to create an age assurance ecosystem of data, deep tech and artificial intelligence partners, resulting in the most comprehensive and effective age verification and estimation solution available.
Experian
With Experian's comprehensive data resources, VerifyMyAge can seamlessly verify information submitted during the verification process.
Facetec
The world leader in 3D Face Liveness & Matching software. Enabling quick and simple age estimation and document face matching.
yes
Yes enables the sharing of open banking data to assess age and identity information.
Schufa
With Schufa’s comprehensive data resources, VerifyMyAge can seamlessly verify information submitted during the verification process.
Amazon Rekognition
Amazon’s computer vision platform enables VerifyMyAge to increase the accuracy of age estimation technologies.
Age Assurance Methods.
VerifyMyAge Database
Mobile Phone Number
Credit Card
Voice
Utility Data
Facial Biometrics
Social Media NLP
Open Banking
ID Scan
Credit Header (and other) Data
Email Address Data
Training AI in the real world with real data.
VerifyMyAge is developing a solution that enables a child under 13 to verify the age returned to them as part of the age estimation process.
Proof of age.
The solution requires the child to provide an authenticated identity document (passport) to verify their age.
Parental consent.
Once they have provided this information they are asked to create an account which requires parental consent.
Sharing consent.
As part of the parental consent flow the parent is asked for permission to share their child’s biometric data + birth MM/YY to assist in the training of our partners AI e.g Facetec.
Our ICO compliant age assurance solution
Compliant.
Our solution aligns with the age and developmental categories introduced by the ICO. We are also certified by ACCS as being PAS1296 compliant, as per the Code of Practice for Online Age Verification Service Providers in the UK. We are also on the UK government's Directory of UK Safety Tech Providers.
Friction-free.
VerifyMyAge is designed to be as efficient and seamless as possible. To minimise friction and ensure positive customer experiences, where possible, we attempt to authenticate/estimate a customers age in 'stealth’ using the PII provided by you, via data partners.
Verification methods.
We strive to provide an exhaustive choice of available age verification and estimation methods and data-sets. A combination of research and our own data shows this leads to a higher rate of; successful age verifications and customer satisfaction. This is why 99.8% of our verifications are approved.
Parental consent with VerifyMyAge.
Our age estimation methods can be used to help children safely access content online with a parent or guardians consent.
When a child attempts to access your services, they will be asked to provide contact details for a parent or guardian. The parent or guardian will be asked to verify their age and give consent for their child to access your content.
Get in touch.
Have questions? Let's chat.
We’re always on-hand to discuss age verification.