In January, the U.K.’s official regulatory representative Murray Perkins told XBIZ Show attendees that the U.K. government would announce the enforcement date for online age verification to go into effect approximately 90 days before implementation — an announcement that has finally come — with July 15 being the official start following several implementation delays.
To learn the latest about what the industry needs to do to prepare for this mandate, XBIZ turned to age verification solution provider AVSecure’s CMO Stephen Winyard for his valuable insights on how operators of websites featuring age-restricted content can adopt an officially approved AV solution for their U.K. customers and the numerous considerations including acceptance by the regulators, the cost to site owners and efficiency in blocking minors.
We wanted to make the adoption of AVSecure frictionless and we currently forecast up to 20 million consumers will use the system based on the clients we have ready to integrate.
For example, Winyard says several factors make AVSecure stand out from the crowd, including technical and privacy prowess — but the most important thing to remember is risk and reputation.
“The U.K. and international press are having a field day mounting heavy criticism at certain AV solutions,” Winyard explains, noting that AVSecure has had no negative press. “Reputation is everything and of the countless companies that use us, some account for the largest traffic generators in the business.”
Winyard predicts that because of this and other factors, such as enhanced privacy features that do not track visitor journeys, and an incognito mode that only requires a PIN for site access, AVSecure will have more people verified than any other system, projecting more than 20 million initial users, and also sees several benefits for sites seeking to keep their visitors.
“Being independent and not collecting any customer data, and I mean not even an email or IP address, makes a massive difference to the U.K. consumer,” Winyard reveals. “Entering anything personal into an AV system is a challenge and taking an email address, from your customer, is a big ‘no.’ Consumers will move from websites that ask too much and find sites that just do AV properly and collect no data.”
“There is no other solution that has the flexibility or power and unparalleled safety and security,” he adds, “and it is these reasons, along with no onerous contracts and tremendous industry support that make AVSecure the primary choice.”
Another reason is superior technology, and while AVSecure is bringing the security of the blockchain to AV, which eliminates a lot of discussion over the tracking of user data because of the platform’s anonymization techniques, XBIZ wonders how the company’s strategy in this regard compares with that of other AV solution providers.
“We spent years being aware that age verification may eventually be required and that allowed us plenty of time to consider not just our business strategy, but also the best technology platform for delivering this complex and challenging solution,” Winyard explains. “We see other providers and realize we have this 100 percent right and that we have set ourselves apart from anyone else by using blockchain to deliver levels of security and functionality you simply can’t get from what we now consider to be old and outdated ways of managing a process like this.”
Central to AVSecure’s technology platform is a customized version of the JPM Quorum Blockchain — an Ethereum-based chain with added privacy features that is capable of processing thousands of attestations per second.
“It can’t track a user journey because it issues a new key on each instance and is impossible to link to a specific individual. If hacked, the blockchain would not be able to reveal the identity of a person. When you are dealing with age verification for adult content, no one else can deliver on this level of privacy and security,” Winyard says. “The fact we don’t collect an email address is also significant. Quite frankly, any solution that needs to take the email of someone else’s customer is bad business and dangerous because, in the event of a hack, emails can easily be reversed engineered to identify an individual.”
Winyard says AVSecure’s commercial strategy of offering AV free to all adult merchants is a well-thought-out move for gaining massive market share.
“We wanted to make the adoption of AVSecure frictionless and we currently forecast over 20 million consumers will use the system based on the clients we have ready to integrate,” he reveals, adding, “We have plenty of ways to generate revenue from other industries outside of adult and also have the stock market keen on placing the company on the London Stock Exchange due to our previous track record.”
Because AVSecure was built as a global business it must have the technical capacity to accommodate millions of users daily, and requires a robust team to manage, with Winyard confiding that the core development team behind AVSecure spent the past four years working on a variety of blockchain and zero-knowledge proof applications across a range of use cases.
“The team has experience across a number of different sectors including telecommunications, networking and financial services. Our CTO has over 30 years’ experience in building mission-critical distributed trading systems for some of the largest global investment banks and hedge funds,” says Winyard. “In addition to our technology team, we have decades of expertise in owning and managing high growth technology companies.”
As for the ease of adding AVSecure to a website, Winyard says it couldn’t be simpler, with popular industry web hosts such as MojoHost ready to help with a variety of integration options including a JavaScript page-only option, server-side PHP and .NET integrations, along with a WordPress Plugin.
“Once merchants have decided the breadth of the service they require, and which integration best suits their business and technology, they simply follow our online documentation instructions to integrate AVSecure,” Winyard explains. “Whilst most people will use JavaScript, we are always on hand to assist with other more complex integrations. It has been designed for easy integration and whilst we foresee no challenges, it is always unwise to assume everything will be perfect so the team is available to help when needed.”
AVSecure's Age Verification Card Puts AV in User's Hands
One standout feature of AVSecure is its physical Age Verification Card that can be used to unlock access to adult content.
“The Age Verification Card is the ultimate way to prove you are over 18 at online sites. Simply purchase a card and the unique 16-digit number it carries can be used to validate your age with participating online partners,” Winyard says. “It will cost £10 [~$13] and can be used to access any age-restricted site including online gaming, gambling, e-cigs, vapes, alcohol, sunbed bookings, pharmaceuticals, lotteries and much more, without sharing information about your identity.”
U.K. consumers can purchase AVSecure’s Age Verification Card e-voucher over-the-counter at up to 60,000 ePay and Paypoint stores across the region, including at major supermarket chains, allowing anonymous and easy face-to-face age verification to be completed at the point of sale.
“If you appear to be over 18, no additional proof is required,” Winyard says. “If the retailer is not sure you are over 18, they may request to see an official photo ID, such as a driver’s license or passport, but no record of the documents will be retained.”
Winyard says the Age Verification Card is unique to AVSecure and that its underlying paysafecard is a market leader in online prepaid payment methods — with AgePass by AVSecure having a globally exclusive agreement to use the 18+ paysafecard as proof of age. It can be purchased at 27,000 retail outlets in the U.K. and used to verify age without revealing any user identity for a truly anonymous method that is unique to AVSecure.
In addition, the company is set to release AgeBlock, a proactive parental filtering solution that it developed over the past year, around the same time AVSecure launches, using the whirlwind of PR around AVSecure to promote it as a product.
“We realized the Digital Economy Act may be viewed as offering a false sense of security for parents in the U.K. by making them believe that every adult website would have AV deployed and we know this is unlikely to be the case,” Winyard says. “We realized that there was an opportunity to provide parents around the globe with a simple to use, big button app that would block access to over 4 million adult sites on their child’s mobile devices and also give parents the flexibility to restrict access to social media and other known sites or apps that contained adult content, including Twitter and Tumblr etc.”
“We designed AgeBlock to be just that product,” he explains, “Simple to use, effective, not intrusive for the children (no snooping or reporting, just a simple block), easy for parents who are not tech savvy and that does a precise job.”
In the interests of transparency and consumer safety, AVSecure has rallied for a grading system for potential AV providers who would need to publicly demonstrate the efficacy, privacy and safety of their services, with the BBFC choosing the NCC Group to be the official accreditation company.
“At the time of writing, I have seen the framework for the scheme and have certainly been pushing for it. The results of this will be designed to inform consumers and industry alike on the confidence levels and modus operandi different solutions adhere to. We will press for a nonbinary result so that the approach to privacy and security we have created, is rewarded,” Winyard explains. “We do however acknowledge that it is perfectly legal to capture and hold data as there are many laws, including GDPR that you have to comply with. That said, and specifically for age verification, the retention of any data in any way is a potential for harm.”
Winyard expects that U.K. consumers will be advised by the press and various media that using an adult site that either doesn’t have age verification or has AV but without the BBFC stamp of approval is a risk to visit — and warns that other dangers lurk.
“It is also important to weed out the fools chasing gold in the AV world who really have no idea what they are doing and may place the industry and consumers at risk,” Winyard advises, noting the press internationally has expressed fears for data breaches and any system, no matter how secure, carries some risk with it, adding, “This is why AVSecure holds no consumer data whatsoever.”
As part of its efforts to educate the public about the nuts and bolts of AV, the company is planning an extensive, targeted PR campaign on several social media channels and the mainstream U.K. press to build brand awareness for AVSecure in the U.K.
“This is all designed to help educate consumers on the Digital Economy Act and promote the compliance of the adult industry and of course, AVSecure and our products,” Winyard reveals, pointing to the AVSecure.com website’s press section and blog as sources of further information.
It is doubtless that some adult site operators will dismiss the need for AV and/or the value of the U.K. market, but Winyard is quick to note that global AV is inevitable and confides that AVSecure is currently in discussion with officials from nine countries that wish to deploy AV solutions, including Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Poland, Spain, Sweden, the U.K. of course, and the U.S.
“In reality, other countries will watch and learn to see the results of the U.K. law and probably starting in 2020, will look to roll it out in their countries,” Winyard says, concluding that the U.S. will be last to join the AV revolution — and it may not require legislation to make it happen. “It is more likely Visa and MasterCard will either not process for sites if they don’t have AV or add a hike in fees. That in its own right is probably a good motivation to use AV.”
