Our Age Assurance track at Identity Week Europe 2023 is populating nicely full of specialists in tackling online harms with regulation, certification, age verification technologies and the media.
Ofcom, ACCS, Consult Hyperion and AVPA follow a dynamite speech from OnlyFans about the importance of age verification in our online spaces and how identity can be used to ensure safety, security, and privacy. The first edition of Identity Week Europe in Amsterdam will noticeably move the debate among the identity ecosystem on from theories and strategies, to actual deployment of biometric assurance technologies to keep children safe online and establish accurate identities.
With four months to go until Identity Week, IdentityWeek.net secured an exclusive opportunity to interview Tony Allen, Chief Executive of the Age Check Certification Services who is participating in two panel sessions on countering ‘Online Harms with Age Assurance’, as well as ‘Utilising Digital ID in Finance’.
The questions we proposed to him included:
- What standards govern age verification/biometric technologies for use, and what improvements need to be made to the certification process/standards?
- Are we seeing demand rising for identity/age verification technologies to protect children from harm?
- How important is interoperability between key parties these systems and relationships between vendors, social media networks, adult sites or advertising sites to ensure robust age restrictions are maintained online or offline?
- Who is responsible for trust – solution providers, certification bodies, standards/ frameworks/ laws governing what technologies make it to the marketplace, or a combination?
- What excites you about speaking at Identity Week Europe in June? What topics will be high on the agenda?
A fascinating discussion that preempts important stakeholder talks to be held at the event around physical deployment and proactivity to implement digital trust and privacy frameworks. He makes asserted statements about the need for more frameworks and certification standards governing vendor solutions that exist but do not satisfy the foundations to continue real applications of biometric and age assurance technology.
Of course, he says, we are seeing more risk online, especially for children, which should warrant action and steer use cases.
The responsibility for trust is squarely on the solution provider that needs to attain certification and adhere to the frameworks that organisations like the ACCS build upon.
