British digital ID company Yoti has revealed a major milestone in its ability to verify user ages as the UK considers a potential ban of social media for under-16s.
The company’s single-selfie passive liveness technology, a system to determine the age of a person based on a single image of them, has become the first of its kind in the world to qualify for Level 3 testing standards as determined by iBeta.
As one of the world’s most respected biometric testing labs, iBeta has three levels of standards that rank the rigorousness and security of biometric features.
Yoti’s system, called MyFace, has for the first time achieved the highest possible testing standard, indicating that its system is protected against various methods that can be used to circumvent facial ID checks. These include using masks, AI deepfakes or other people’s images to trick the system.
The company has said it is now able to securely verify the age of users with a single selfie with minimal risk of interference and without excessive friction for consumers.
“This isn’t a theoretical claim or a vendor opinion – it’s independently tested evidence and it sets a new benchmark for what credible, high-assurance presentation attack liveness detection needs to look like as policymakers, platforms and regulators get to grips with how to protect younger users online,” Robin Tombs, Yoti chief executive, told UKTN.
The announcement comes amid calls for the UK to enact a ban on the use of social media for under-16s, similar to action already taken in Australia.
Prominent politicians from several major parties have voiced support for a ban and research is currently being done to test potential impacts ahead of any concrete decisions.
Yoti is one of the UK’s more prominent companies in the digital ID sector and has been an important partner for the Online Safety Act, which restricts children’s access to explicitly adult digital content.
