54% Of UK Age-Restricted Sites Are Unable to Stop Minors from Accessing Their Products or Services.

In the UK alone, there are many companies that offer age-restricted products or services online. With COVID-19 forcing businesses to move online, this figure has only increased in recent months. According to a recent report, 54% of UK age-restricted sites have found that they are unable to stop minors from using their products or services.

This recent development has caused a lot of concern as this kind of practice is illegal. Here, we are going to look at the results from the recent report and discuss the importance of age verification software like the one offered by AgeChecked.

What Did the Report Say?

While many of us are aware of sites that are not performing acceptable age verification before the sale of products, this new report indicates a larger problem. The report suggested that 54% of sites were unable to stop minors from accessing their products or services. Around 67% of people believed that it was their responsibility to do so, and this is indeed the case when you look at the law.

Some industries that need to rely on proper age verification include those selling alcohol, vaping products, fireworks and gambling products. Interestingly, the report found that those selling fireworks or alcohol online were 50% less likely to depend on weak age verification. While these companies clearly understand the importance and their responsibility to provide proper age verification checks, they simply are not doing it enough.

Due to COVID-19, there has been a 50% growth in online purchasing and many industries such as the alcohol industry have benefited from this. If more than half of UK age-restricted sites are not properly verifying age, they could face serious fines and loss of licenses.

The Solution

According to the recent report, around 45% of people surveyed found that it was important to them that they have a strong technology to verify their users’ ages. While they found that this could affect conversion rates negatively, the ultimate result is more important.

At AgeChecked, we provide a strong API that can remove the possibility of minors slipping through the cracks. Many businesses across the alcohol industry are already using our services and have seen a positive impact as a result. Over a quarter of people surveyed stated that they rely on a self-assessment form, but this is not adequate at all.

Get In Touch

If you consider yourself to be in the 54% of businesses that are unable to stop minors from accessing products or services, you need to change things now. More people are buying online, and you could face serious repercussions if you are not careful.

Get in touch with AgeChecked today to find out more about our age-verification service. We have clients in many industries and our client API is incredibly powerful. A member of our team will be happy to help you get started today