Go-to social live-streaming platform for Gen Z, Yubo, will be rolling out a new age verification system to help ensure users on the app are the age they say – one of today’s top challenges in online safety. It will become the first major social media app to institute a wide age verification across the platform and will serve as an added layer of protection for its online community of 60 million Gen Z users.
The new verification system is the latest in the platform’s long history of safety-driven initiatives to protect the Yubo community that has been heralded by the eSafety Commissioner. This includes real-time AI and human moderation for live streaming, educating users on safe and responsible behaviours online and working closely with leading safety experts.
Building on existing ID verification processes Yubo has in place in partnership with digital identity provider Yoti, Yubo will be the first major social app to institute wide age authentication of its users. It will launch in beta stage for users ages 13 and 14 with the goal of age-verifying 100% of all users on the platform by the end of 2022. Since many people under 16 don’t have access to a drivers licence or ID, this process will democratise identity verification making it accessible to everyone. It is also privacy-friendly, guaranteeing the protection of our users’ data and bolstering the protection for its online community.
Features of this new system includes:
- Advancing the age verification process: In order to make the age verification seamless and accessible to all users, this new system will not require any identification documents unless a user’s age doesn’t match – instead users will take a real-time photo of themselves within the Yubo app, which Yoti’s age estimation technology will then process. The technology will ensure users access the correct age group on the app and enable wide scalability.
- Enhanced security: After a user takes their photo, Yoti’s passive liveness algorithm analyses it to confirm the image being used is not a fake or a spoofing attempt. Users who do not have the correct age on their profiles will be asked to verify their identity through additional processes before accessing the app.
- Improved accuracy: Yoti’s technology, which is privacy-preserving, continues to grow in accuracy year on year. It is able to correctly verify that a user is above or below an age threshold with 98.9% accuracy, working fairly across all ages, genders, and skin tones. As a trusted identity platform, the Yoti age estimation system can effectively estimate the ages of 6 to 12-year-old users within 1.3 years and those between 13 and 19 within 1.5 years. Yoti’s proprietary liveness detection technology is certified by iBeta, the gold standard for such technologies.
