The recent e-commerce statistics show that in 2018 digital buyers were 1.79 billion which is expected to be 2.14 billion by the end of 2021 with 17.5% of global retail sales share. The increase in online marketplace sales is on one side good news for the economy but endless opportunities for online threats that can harm the system and economy in one way or the other. These online threats are not only limited to a data breach or fraudulent transactions but also under-age buyers who buy items that are restricted for a particular age group.
According to the legal lawsuit, the age verification of online buyers is necessary in order to prevent the under-age community from buying items that are not made for them. In the online gaming industry, gambling industry and online drug stores, age verification should be done for each onboarding customers. This would be helpful in selling restricted products to buyers that are above the legal age.
The under-age community is buying drugs from online stores without the permission of their parents. About 7.4% community is recorded that belongs to the age range of 12 to 20 and buy alcohol online. Most of the children buy online products through the credit card of their parents. There needs strict online identity verification while confirming the order of the online customer.
Industries that need Online Age Verification
Some online stores use third party delivery service to deliver orders to customers. Age verification is a difficult task for the delivery men to do. Therefore it is necessary to embed age verification online in the system and verify the age of customers. This functionality needs to be implemented keeping in mind that user experience is not sacrificed in any way. The following are some online stores that need to integrate their system with online age verification software.
Gaming Industry
In the gaming industry, products have their requirements to be sold. In the lawsuit, those products must have age-restricted elements to prevent being sold to under-age customers. Age range definition for buying certain products is different in different places. For this t ensure, restrict customers based on local regulations. While providing a better user experience, there is a need to comply properly with those customer verification requirements to avoid harsh fines.
Online Drug Store
Selling age-restricted products like tobacco, cigarettes, alcohol, similar drugs, fireworks, and sparklers are banned to customers having age less than 18. To ensure that the customer age is greater than 18, online drug stores need to verify the customer age to proceed shopping and to confirm the order. Age verification can be done by ID card verification, face verification or passport verification. There are many other methods that can be used to verify the age of onboarding customers. Driving license can also be given as an option of proving age to buy online items.
Sports Betting Industry
The online betting industry has a record of generating $45.8 billion revenue in 2017 which is increasing rapidly in the years ahead. Online websites that support betting in sports should restrict the underage community by involving in an adult community. Here there is a need for age verification of the identities entering the system for the purpose of betting against certain sports results.
Online Movie Stores
The revenue generation of the movie industry is recorded to be 38 billion in 2016, which is expected to rise up to 50 billion by the end of 2020. Under-age community jumping into the online movie store should be verified properly. There should be age checks on the movies that are age-restricted and can only be sold to the adult community. It is necessary to comply with local regulations while selling movies online. Customers should be verified online when there comes a request for buying the movies that are restricted to under 18 community.
To conclude, online stores that sell stuff which cannot commonly be sold should have proper checks in order to verify the age and identity of onboarding customers. It is critical to verify identity online but necessary at the same time in order to prevent restricted buyers from buying restricted items based on local regulations.
