Yoti Provides Age Assurance Tech for Kid-friendly Social Platform

Wizz, the operator of an eponymous social media app for children, has now rolled out a biometric age check system, and made it mandatory for all users.

The technology has been provided by Yoti, and entails the use of a live face scan. In announcing the system, Wizz made no mention of ID scans, suggesting that it is relying on Yoti’s age estimation technology.

“This tool also allows Wizz to segment users by age, plus or minus one year only, throughout their time on our platform,” the company explained, adding that Yoti has been accredited with the UK’s Age Verification Certificate of Compliance (AVC).

Issued by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), the AVC is part of the UK’s efforts to make the internet safer for children by preventing their access to adult content. As part of the Digital Economy Act 2017, the BBFC was designated as the Age-verification Regulator. The AVC is a voluntary, non-statutory certification scheme developed to ensure that age-verification providers maintain high privacy and data security standards.

It is designed to assess the data security standards of age-verification (AV) providers, with certified solutions offering robust data protection conditions being awarded the BBFC’s new green ‘AV’ symbol. This certification indicates that an age-verification provider has met rigorous security and data checks and upholds a high standard of data protection​.

Yoti became the first age verification provider to be certified under the ‘AV Certificate’ scheme in 2019.

Besides mandatory age checks, Wizz has introduced an additional layer of advertisement security, in-app educational content, and warnings to enhance user safety. These measures aim to create a safer environment for its young user base.

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February 14, 2024 – by the FindBiometrics Editorial Team