Your customers arrive at your site, select a method of age verification, and the check takes place in seconds.
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Who are AVYourself?
AVYourself was launched in 2018 by W2 in response to the anticipated Digital Economy Act (DEA).
W2 has been providing Age and Identity Verification solutions to the financial services, betting and gaming and ecommerce sectors since 2011 and has over 100 customers spanning the globe using its simple platform to manage customer acquisition in a safe and compliant manner. For more information on W2 please head to our website https://www.w2globaldata.com/.
Due to some of the nuances expected under the DEA, AVYourself was intended to be delivered as a separate platform to the core W2 engine thus ensuring existing and new clients could benefit from some exciting innovations to address the specific market needs.
Those of you who have followed the turbulent path of the DEA will know that since the law was passed in 2017 there have been several iterations of a proposed certification scheme, proposed implementation dates have come and gone and ultimately the enforcement of the DEA was indefinitely shelved in November 2019 and is widely expected to be wrapped up in the delivery of child protection through the online harms initiative being run by the UK government.
Given these changes, we have decided to roll AVYourself back into the larger W2 environment making far more services and implementation methods available, along with maintaining the highest standards of privacy and integrity.
Simple and Secure Online Age Verification
Via a single, easy to integrate platform you can access effective, secure and robust online age verification for a wide range of online business uses.
The Age Verification and DEA timeline
Digital Policy Alliance
In January 2015 AVYourself joins the Digital Policy Alliance, the cross-party parliamentary group working to steer policy makers on protecting children from online content which could be deemed harmful.
Digital Economy Act
The Digital Economy Act 2017 received royal assent in April 2017 meaning all online commercial adult content services accessible from the UK will be required to carry age-verification controls to prevent children from stumbling across or accessing content that isn’t appropriate for them.
BBFC
In 2018 the UK government approves the appointment of the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) as the regulator for age verification of online pornography in the UK.
Expected enforcement
Age checks for online websites containing adult content are expected to come into force during 2019. As the regulator and UK government sign off on the final guidance for merchants and age verification providers. Age Verification providers such as W2 Global Data prepare for certification.
UK Gambling Commission age verification
UK Gambling Commission makes changes to licensing conditions formalising the need for age verification at account opening stage and removing all barriers for withdrawal of funds saying that any necessary checks should be done at the earliest possible stage.
UK government retracts enforcement
UK government retracts intention to implement enforcement of the DEA citing an intention to wrap it up into a wider online harms initiative
Instagram Age Verification
Instagram announces it will be implementing an age limit on accounts, but doesn’t say how it will be checking the age (if at all)
Dutch regulator requires age verification
Dutch regulator requires betting and gambling operators to implement age verification prior to full licensing approval
Seamless and discrete
Age Verification
All the age verification methods available through W2 are built with security and privacy at the forefront. We ensure that frictionless customer acquisition can be achieved for the merchant, operator or service provider while making sure that the consumer or player has complete peace of mind and an seamless customer experience.
W2 work closely with regulators across all the markets in which we operate to make sure that industry guidelines and best practice are met with the minimum of fuss.
Building upon our extensive experience in providing verification services across a wide range of industries, W2’s platform is simple to integrate and enables organisations that need to age verify their customers to do so instantly and without worrying about the security on personal information that is used.
Real-time age verification
Simple and discrete
No logins are required, W2 encrypts data at point of entry and it can be deleted after the verification has taken place if required. Ensuring the highest level of privacy for your customers.
Compliant
All our solutions are built in close alignment with regulatory bodies and we will continue to ensure that all the methods we provide are built to meet compliance guidelines and industry best practice.
Easy Integration with Websites
Our platform provides a quick and simple integration for websites and apps, enabling online merchants, operators and service providers to easily achieve and maintain cost effective compliance. Our range of API, SDK and other integration options offer maximum flexibility to suit all technical requirements.
