assurance’. Platforms use algorithms to score a user’s social profile – their likes, their friendships, their school – to assess if these are out of kilter with their claimed age. It is not clear how many accounts are shut down by such checks – but there is no shortage of research to prove how many underage accounts escape them.


So for the gambling industry – and others such as alcohol or unhealthy foods – to comply with age-restrictions on their advertising, platforms must now introduce effective, independent age checks. Tis is neither onerous nor expensive. To begin with, they could invite any users they currently record as being over 18 to complete a short age-verification process. Ten, on their claimed 18th birthday, new adults can be asked to do likewise, with the promise of access to more content previously off limits. Tis way, the platforms will quickly develop a sub-set of users they have firmly verified as adults – all of whom can safely be served age-restricted advertising.


Only effective Age Verification, conducted independently and to an agreed standard accepted by regulators, can deliver this goal. Platforms using certified AV technology, such as AgeChecked, will be capable of targeting accurately adult users to the BSI Standard, PAS1296, already specified by the Home Office for online alcohol sales.


Gambling operators will also benefit from more efficient marketing, as they can have complete confidence that they are not inadvertently – and pointlessly – paying for ads seen by those too young to gamble. Te benefit to the platforms is that they would no longer need to apply a ‘Tink 25’ buffer and could safely advertise to 18-24 year olds as well, offering a wider audience to advertisers of age-restricted goods.


And because age-verification providers adopt a “verify once, use many times” approach, passing an age check will increasingly be invisible to the consumer, with no interruption


to their user-experience. If they’ve previously ordered beer from a supermarket, the chances are they’ll have been verified already. Tis new safety-tech sector is moving rapidly to introduce interoperability between AV providers, so they are able to recognise each other’s age checks, further reducing any impact on customers. Tis work, led by the AV Providers own trade association, of which I am co-chair, will accelerate the scale required to allow any website to confirm the age of the user, without needing to know their identity or access any personal data. Tat will not only allow for compliance with advertising rules, but also with the new Age Appropriate Design Code, which became law on 2 September, and threatens fines of up to 4% of global turnover for allowing children’s data to be processed in any way that may be harmful to them, mentally or physically.


While the UK government is still planning action to impose a duty of care on websites to protect children more generally, it is innovations like that of the BGC’s new advertising code which are more likely to drive this important first principle for online protection – you need to know with confidence whether each user is a child or an adult.


NEWSWIRE / INTERACTIVE / MARKET DATA P131


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