How OneID® simplifies Highly Effective Age Assurance.

Can under-18s access your online service? That’s the question online services like dating apps, gaming platforms, social media sites and other in-scope services have to answer. Ofcom has set 16 April as the deadline to complete the Children’s Access Assessment (CAA).

The Children’s Access Assessment is done in two stages and must answer:

1. Is it possible for children to access your service?
2. Is the child user condition met?

Simplify your OSA compliance with a highly effective age assurance solution.

Integrating a Highly Effective Age Assurance (HEAA) solution to your platform or service simplifies and speeds up your CAA. You can confidently answer ‘no’ to the assessment's first stage, 'Is it possible for children to access your service?’ and conclude the assessment. You don’t need to go through the second stage of the assessment or undertake the Children’s Risk Assessment later on if you have a highly effective age assurance solution.

With a highly effective age assurance solution like OneID®, you can know with absolute certainty if your visitor is over 18. If they cannot prove they are over 18, you can stop them from using your service. This way, you can answer ‘no’ at the first stage, conclude the Children’s Access Assessment, and get on with business as usual.

What makes an age assurance solution 'Highly Effective' according to Ofcom?

Ofcom defines a Highly Effective Age Assurance Solution based on the following principles:

• Technical Accuracy – The ability of an age verification method to accurately determine a user’s age under controlled conditions.
• Robustness – The performance of the method in real-world scenarios, ensuring consistent and reliable identification.
• Reliability – Consistency of results across different users and applications.
• Fairness – Ensuring no bias or discriminatory outcomes, making the solution accessible to all users.
• Accessibility & Privacy – Minimising data collection while ensuring inclusivity and safeguarding user privacy. 

Two seamless and effortless age verification technology from OneID®.

OneID®’s frictionless and reliable age verification solutions blend into the digital habits of modern netizens – delivering a seamless user journey. By leveraging data from banks and mobile network operators, OneID®’s age verification solutions are instant and privacy-preserving.

With bank-based age verification, users authenticate their identity through their online banking app, ensuring fast and secure verification. The mobile verification approach, meanwhile, verifies the records associated with the user's mobile phone number. Both methods easily integrate into existing workflows, allowing platforms to stay compliant without causing user drop-offs.

Even minor friction can lead to disengagement on dating apps, online gaming platforms, and social media sites. OneID® makes age verification instantaneous, reliable, and natural to the user journey. This enables businesses to meet regulatory demands while keeping their platforms engaging and accessible.

Does OneID®’s age verification methods meet Ofcom’s HEAA requirements?

Technical Accuracy

• Bank Data: 100% accurate in test conditions. Banks verify identities using government-issued IDs as part of the Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-money Laundering (AML) checks required by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
• Mobile verification: 100% accurate in test conditions. Mobile operators verify users when setting up pay-monthly contracts and apply a Content Restriction Filter (CRF) that can only be turned off by proving the user is over 18.

Robustness

• Bank Data: In real-world use, OneID® verifies users with their bank’s Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) and confirms age using bank-verified data. Combined with biometric authentication through OneID® Wallet, this ensures >99% accuracy.

• Mobile verification: OneID® verifies users using the data held by mobile operators about their customers. When combined with OneID® Wallet, results remain more than 99% accurate.

Reliability

• Bank Data: Every API call to a user’s online banking app provides a real-time, tamper-proof result based on verified government ID data.
• Mobile verification: Every API call to a network operator produces an accurate result, as mobile contracts require government ID verification at sign-up. Once a OneID® Wallet is set up, results remain consistent.

Fairness

• Bank Data: Available to all UK citizens, ensuring no bias in verification.
• Mobile verification: Covers the majority of UK mobile users, ensuring equal access to verification.

Accessibility & Privacy

• OneID® works for anyone with a UK online bank account (92% UK adults) or a contract mobile phone (78%).
• OneID® follows strict data minimisation—only confirming if a user is over 18 without sharing personal details.

What if a highly effective age assurance solution could deliver more than just compliance? 

Our white paper, ‘The Online Safety Act - Turn Compliance into Competitive Advantage with OneID®’, focuses on the operational efficiencies and the enhanced onboarding experience your business can get.

Your OSA compliance shouldn’t come at the expense of user experience.

Think of age assurance like a secure door. If you have the right key, you get through easily. If you don’t, it stays shut. It shouldn’t feel like a barbed wire fence that keeps everyone out.

OneID®’s two highly effective age assurance methods – bank verification and mobile verification – allow businesses to meet Ofcom’s compliance requirements without adding friction. These two methods offer the fastest and most reliable way for dating sites, online gaming companies, and social media platforms to balance compliance with seamless onboarding and user experience.

Prepare for compliance. Speak to our team.

With Ofcom’s deadlines fast approaching, we are here to help you comply with the Online Safety Act and implement age assurance methods that are privacy-preserving, user-friendly, and minimise user drop-offs.