The online gaming industry is a growing industry for big participants. According to the research, the gaming business has expanded globally to the value of US $647.9 billion and is expected to rise at an annual rate of 5.6% from 2022-2027.
Online gaming can be accessed by anyone including minors who should not be exposed to such a platform. Therefore, it has become important for the industry to apply the use of age verification to adopt safer business practices.
However, online gaming has become a convenient medium for people to earn an income with minimal effort. The gaming industry, only interested in grabbing a huge amount of customers, does not care who approaches their platforms even if they are criminals or underage children.
There is a huge amount of players registered on the gaming platforms that are minors and this issue must be checked. With this blog, we will discuss the importance of age-verification for gaming platforms.
The Consequences of Unregulated Gaming
The Internet has made gaming platforms easily accessible to everyone. Generation Z, always on their smartphones, have more understanding of these technologies than their parents and that makes it harder for them to keep an eye on their actions.
The safety of the minors then lies on the shoulders of both the gaming platforms and the parents. Age verification solution can assist the gaming industry to fulfil its responsibilities.
The games these days have become highly developed with all sorts of content that is unfit for certain ages. The content can be inappropriate, explicit, or even violent content that can have a huge impact on the young player’s developing personality.
The highly developed platforms allow players to chat with other players from around the world. This could mean the minors talking or connecting with people older than them without supervision. Without a proper check, minors can get exposed to people who can harm them physically or mentally.
Other than the exposure to the age unfit content, minors can become victims of child identity theft. A study was conducted regarding child identity theft in 2018, and it was discovered that more than 1 million children became the victim of identity in the USA. Which means the loss of USD 2.67 billion.
Children use their parent’s credit card information to access some paid platforms. However, unaware of the types of scams, they might be fooled into giving their parents’ credentials at the wrong website.
At times, when they use their parent’s credit information, the parents can later reverse the transaction and the gaming platform becomes the victim of chargeback fraud.
Due to fulfilling the regulatory requirements, most of these gaming platforms have age-gate but those are not enough. Such age-gates just require the check in the box to verify the age and this can be easily manipulated by anyone at all.
This is why a proper system is required that can digitally verify the age of the online players and avoid not only the hassle of fraud but also to avoid the consequences they will face by the regulatory authorities.
Digital and Secure Age Verification Solution
In this digital world, there are software-based solutions that can perform id age verification in no time. The solution is AI-powered and performs identity checks through face verification and document verification. The player has to send a picture of their identity document along with their selfie.
The AI-based solution will analyze the document to ensure that it is valid and not forged. The selfie is also analyzed to ensure that it really belongs to the player and is not a spoof attack.
The photo of the ID document and selfie is analyzed as well to ensure the legitimacy of the player. By verifying the authenticity of the identity document, the age verification solution ensures that the age mentioned on the document is legit.
Sum it up
This age verification process is swift and accurate. The legit customers don’t have to go through the long process of player onboarding as well. By applying this age verification solution, the gaming industry can ensure that no minor is being exposed to age-restricted content while providing excellent service to their legit customers.
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