Workshop - Age Verification Using Biometrics: Potential and Challenges

Age verification is a mandatory procedure for delivering certain age-appropriate products, which are available only to adults (like alcohol, tobacco, and gambling). In recent times, a growing under-18 digital population has put pressure on some online service providers to implement strict age checking. Bill S-210 was recently passed by the Senate of Canada and is currently in review in the House of Commons. This bill proposes to enforce age verification on certain adult websites so that children are kept safe online. Many countries around the world have implemented similar regulations. Traditionally, government-issued identification documents have been widely used to check someone’s age. However, sharing such documents online may compromise the privacy of users’ personal data. There is also the risk of document forgery. Specially, since the COVID-19 pandemic, an exponential increase in online transactions has fueled the need for a reliable mechanism of age verification. This shows the importance of anonymous age verification schemes, which can estimate users’ age from their biometrics data, without knowing anything further.

Different researchers have been working to improve anonymous age verification schemes using certain biometric features, like facial image, heartbeat pattern, voice, etc. Some of these methods have been implemented or tested commercially. Still, it remains a big topic of discussion, especially in the Canadian context, to sort out suitable schemes of age verification that can ensure the accuracy, security, and privacy of users. This workshop will provide an overview of these issues.