A global initiative called OpenAge, launched recently by K-ID, a non-public website management platform for the protection of minors, aims to simplify and harmonize age certification standards for online platforms and mobile applications. At the heart of the initiative is AgeKey, a reusable digital age voucher that allows users to complete the one-time age validation and store the results directly in the equipment.
AgeKey is built on a common key technology under the WebAuthn and FIDO2 standards, which means its original support iOS, the Android system and the mainstream browser. When used or used in a game, AgeKey is able to judge that the user belongs to a group of children, adolescents or adults in accordance with regional regulatory requirements, and does not disclose identity information or share personal data. The system is designed to help mobile application developers respond to increasingly stringent youth network protection regulations in markets such as Australia, Brazil and the European Union. K-ID indicated that AgeKey had been deployed on a range of platforms and that over 5 million validation operations had been recorded during the testing period, which had taken about 95 per cent less time than traditional methods.
The OpenAge initiative will be overseen by an independent expert committee, including senior personnel in the area of cybersecurity and data governance, whose role is to ensure that the plan follows high standards of privacy protection, child safety and interoperability. The committee was chaired by Baroness Joanna Hills, founder of the WeProtec Global Alliance, and was composed of Stephen Barcam, Chief Executive Officer of the Family Online Safety Institute, Boyana Bellamy, President of the Centre for Leadership in Information Policy, and David Wright CBE, Chief Executive Officer of the Southwest Grid Learning Centre. The head of the K-ID OpenAge project, Julian Cobette, said: “There is an urgent need for a completely new solution that can be adapted to the size of the Internet and achieve a win-win between security and privacy. Through AgeKey and OpenAge, we have built an easy and reliable age certification system.”
k-ID addresses cross-jurisdictional compliance solutions for game developers, provides a database of global regulations and compliance requirements, provides sessions, home configurations, and cross-platform parental consent and age validation to help customize play experiences for children and adolescents in multiple global markets.
