As Age-Verification Laws Expand, Atlanta’s AgeWallet Steps In to Keep Businesses Compliant

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Earlier this year, the US Supreme Court upheld a Texas law mandating proof of age to access adult content online,  joining other countries with age verification laws and paving the way for similar age verification legislation across the country.

To date, almost half of the US' fifty states have enacted similar age verification laws.

Without oversight at the federal level, many online gaming, cannabis, alcohol, and adult entertainment companies are scrambling to figure out exactly how to stay compliant with confusing state-level and international regulations.

That’s where Brady Louveau, CEO of Atlanta-based Brady Mills Agency, saw an opportunity.

Louveau’s agency was having conversations with clients in the high-risk industry about their needs around age-related compliance. After about a year of development, the agency has rolled out AgeWallet™, a privacy-first age-verification app.

AgeWallet provides a tokenization system using OIDC (OpenID Connect), enabling users to remain completely anonymous online.

"When an AgeWallet user verifies and views content, we separate their age verification and identity from the content they are actually viewing," Louveau told Hypepotamus.

Using OIDC, which is similar to the authentication process for logging onto a site using a Google account of Apply ID, ensures that “no one's spoofing the system.”

The AgeWallet team also created a WordPress plugin and API to make setup “as seamless as possible for developers without compromising security.”

The app is now live on both the Apple App Store and Google Play.

Age-Related Tech Realities

The platform does not store any personally identifying information.

By utilizing a proprietary legal matrix, designed specifically to keep up with the changing regulatory landscape across borders. The team says that AgeWallet seamlessly adapts to evolving legislation. From age estimation to ID verification and more restrictive age verification requirements both stateside and internationally, along with disclaimers and TTL protocols, it's important for content providers to be aware of the nuanced rules. Companies that break those rules could face heavy financial penalties.

“There are a lot of age verification services out there. What sets us apart is that ours adapts to the changing legislation as well,” Louveau added. “Based on the user's location at time of use, we can enforce specific jurisdictional age verification laws. Each new layer of verification is applied to their universal token, which can be used across any of the AgeWallet-enabled sites."

Louveau added that AgeWallet is “designed for small to mid-size merchants in the high-risk, adult space" who can't afford to spend tons of money to remain compliant in an affordable way.

AgeWallet runs on a per-verification pricing model without monthly fees or setup charges.

Now, Louveau knows that businesses might have concerns around “conversation impact” that might come from using something like AgeWallet.

“Of course, any friction that you add to a site is going to impact conversion. But most of the adults that use our system are age verified through estimation, which only takes a couple of seconds and ID is only required in those edge cases where it's required by jurisdiction or if they fall within a mean error [age] range,” he added. “Our goal is to keep that transaction as fast as possible, allowing users to quickly and easily access your content.”

-Featured photo from Unsplash