Age Assurance

Such technologies and solutions may provide varying levels of certainty in establishing the age of users depending on the use case and the risks involved in the service being accessed. The methods deployed can vary widely from the use of hard identifiers, to self-declaration to third party solutions to innovative technical measures such as AI based analysis and biometrics driven approaches. Currently there is no standardisation in terminology in this area and so terms such as age assurance, age estimation, and age verification are commonly used. However the descriptor “age assurance” has emerged as something of an umbrella term to collective refer to any techniques and measures that may be intended to establish or estimate age irrespective of the technology or approach deployed.

The UK ICO’s Age Appropriate Design Code (known as the Children’s Code), and the Irish Data Protection Commission’s “Fundamentals” guidance amongst other European data protection regulatory initiatives create additional requirements for providers of digital and online services to protect children’s personal data. However, age assurance obligations do not arise only in a data protection/ privacy context for online businesses – they can also impact other areas of consumer regulation such as the sale or provision of specific age restricted goods and services (e.g. sale of alcohol or knives, or access to pornography), as well as audio visual services, advertising and digital services regulation.

Against this backdrop, deploying appropriate and effective age assurance measures is increasingly being viewed as the gateway to achieving higher standards of protection of children in the context of online services, as well as an important aspect of digital regulatory compliance for such services providers.

Our top-ranked Privacy & Data Protection experts are one step ahead of the game. We take a sector-focused approach and are well-versed in advising online service providers on a multijurisdictional scale about how to approach obligations concerning protection of children in the digital world and implement appropriate and effective age assurance measures. Our team consists of market leading experts with deep experience in advising on the intersection between children’s rights and protection and digital regulatory issues, who are well versed in the different regulatory approaches to these cutting edge areas.

Below you will find some content which our team has produced providing useful insights into recent regulatory activity and the increasing role that age assurance has to play in this context.

If you’d like to know more, reach out to one of the team below