Online Platforms Face Growing Pressure to Strengthen Age Assurance

Article content

Article content

New Jumio research finds 75% of consumers are willing to verify their age online and reveals growing support for reusable identity as a proportionate path to protecting minors and personal data

Article content

Article content

SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Jumio, the leading provider of AI-powered identity intelligence, today released new findings from its 2026 Online Identity Study, revealing strong consumer support for protecting minors online and growing expectations for platforms to implement effective, proportionate age assurance.

Article content

Article content

The research found that 81% of global consumers think access to age-gated materials online is harmful to minors. Consumers also indicated that they are open to participating in age verification efforts, with 75% saying they are willing to verify their age online to ensure minors cannot access adult products and platforms.

Article content

Article content

While 81% also believe age verification is an important tool for preventing access to harmful or restricted content, opinions vary on who bears the ultimate responsibility. When asked who they hold most responsible for protecting minors online, respondents pointed primarily to parents (71%), followed by government agencies (22%), tech marketplaces (21%) and individual apps and websites (19%). Notably, 79% also support government action to regulate access.

Article content

While consumers support stronger protections for minors online, effective age assurance also requires their participation. The findings reveal a challenge for digital platforms: consumers want stronger safeguards, but some remain hesitant to complete identity checks or share personal information to enable them.

Article content

Article content

The findings underscore the balancing act facing digital platforms: delivering the level of assurance needed to effectively protect minors while making the verification experience proportionate to the risk and minimizing unnecessary friction for legitimate users. This confirms the importance of modern digital IDs, which can provide age assurance without sharing personal data. Building trust in the age assurance experience also requires organizations to explain why verification is necessary and how personal information is handled and protected.

Article content

“There’s still a major trust gap around what happens to personal data during age verification. Stronger age assurance doesn’t necessarily mean collecting and permanently storing large amounts of sensitive data, but consumers need to understand what information is required and why,” said Joe Kaufmann, global head of privacy at Jumio. “Transparency and responsible data handling are critical to building trust and encouraging consumers to participate in the verification process.”

Article content

Article content

Consumers also signaled strong interest in verification models such as reusable identity solutions that reduce repetitive checks while maintaining strong assurance. Notably, 65% said they would prefer to verify their age once and reuse that verification across multiple platforms, rather than repeating the process each time.

Article content

The research also highlights why there is no one-size-fits-all approach to age assurance. Age estimation uses a selfie to predict a person’s age and produces a probabilistic signal, while age verification confirms that an individual meets a specific age threshold using information from a government-issued ID, typically supported by identity and liveness checks. While some platforms are experimenting with AI-powered age estimation tools, identity experts caution that estimated age signals may not provide enough assurance for regulated environments or higher-risk platforms.

Article content

“There’s an important distinction between estimating someone’s age and truly verifying it,” said Jumio CEO Mark Lorion. “Age estimation may reduce friction in lower-risk situations, but when platforms require high assurance, especially where minors are involved, the strongest age assurance is a multi-layered approach using a government-issued ID and a selfie check to confirm the real person behind the credential. The focus now must be on delivering that assurance while minimizing the amount of data collected and stored.”

Article content

As age verification requirements continue to expand globally, the research suggests consumers are willing to participate in stronger identity checks, but only if organizations can demonstrate transparency, privacy protection and responsible data handling. For digital platforms, building trust may depend as much on explaining how data is protected as on the verification technology itself.

Article content

Article content

To learn more about Jumio and its award-winning, AI-powered identity intelligence solutions, visit jumio.com.

Article content

About the Research

Article content

The Jumio 2026 Online Identity Study surveyed 8,003 adult consumers evenly distributed across the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, and Mexico. Censuswide fielded the survey between April 14 and April 27, 2026. Censuswide abides by and employs members of the Market Research Society which is based on the ESOMAR principles and are members of The British Polling Council.