When age verification becomes a hard stop - uploading passport scans and driving licences, taking selfies, entering card details - many users abandon it. In highly optimised digital flows, one extra step can drop conversion rates heavily.
Real-time age assurance. regulator-ready, friction-light, privacy-first
Age Verify from XConnect is a next-generation age-verification service built on the live, verified identity signals held by mobile network operators. It’s designed for platforms that must ensure users are 18+ (or another threshold) yet refuse to sacrifice user-experience, conversion or privacy.
It addresses the core challenge facing many regulated and age-restricted platforms: how to comply with Online Safety Act 2023 without driving users away, introducing friction or maintaining risk of bypass.
With Age Verify, you get a simple Yes/No response in milliseconds - confirming the user meets the required age threshold - without documents, selfies or driving them into the arms of your competitors.
Age checks are no longer optional - regulators and users expect serious rigour.
As of 25 July 2025, UK platforms must implement “highly effective” age-assurance methods before displaying age-restricted content. The regulator Ofcom makes it clear: simple tick-boxes won’t cut it.
Recent stats underline the commercial and compliance urgency:
- BBC News (Oct 30, 2025) confirms an adult platform's own data that UK visitor numbers fell 77% after new age check rules came into force in July 2025, with Similarweb analytics echoing this figure for overall traffic decline
- A 2024 study found that only 45% of under-25s buying age-restricted goods online were asked for ID on delivery, compared to 78% in person. Meanwhile, Alcohol Change UK reports that just 22% of 18-25-year-olds are always ID-checked for alcohol deliveries, falling to 15% for subscriptions and 16% for supermarkets.
iGaming & Gambling platforms feeling the pinch.
The July 2025 age-verification ruling introduced mandatory digital ID checks across all UK online gambling operators, ending anonymous play and forcing platforms to prove every user’s age before account creation or deposit.
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Player onboarding fell sharply, with operators reporting nearly 10% fewer active accounts within weeks of enforcement as tighter age-check flows led to higher abandonment and verification failures.
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Session times and engagement declined, dropping around 9% as repeated age-validation prompts and stricter access controls disrupted play and shortened average gambling sessions.⠀
What this means in general: platforms offering age-restricted content or goods (adult sites, gambling, alcohol, tobacco, regulated e-commerce) face three simultaneous pressures: regulatory risk, commercial conversion risk and user-trust risk.
The 3 Problems Facing Platforms
1. Friction kills conversion and drives users off-platform
2. Easy to bypass or bluff check = weak assurance, regulatory exposure
Many current age checks rely on self-declaration (“I’m over 18”), credit-card checks or delivery-based ID verification. These are either weak from a compliance standpoint or open to circumvention (for example, via proxy/VPN).
3. Privacy, trust and data risk. Not to mention satisfying regulators.
Requiring ID uploads, biometrics, or extensive profile checks introduces privacy risk, user trust risk and data-security burden. Platforms worry about data breaches, excessive friction and the overhead of storing and verifying sensitive personal data.
Verified & direct identity insight
When a customer activates a mobile contract or pay-as-you-go SIM, the MNO already performs rigorous KYC: name, date of birth, address, ID documentation and payment verification. That’s a rich, regulated identity signal.
A seamless yes/no API verdict
With user consent the MNO (via XConnect) answers: “Is this subscriber over the age threshold (e.g. 18)?” There’s no personal data transfer, no document upload, no user detour. That makes for minimal friction, maximal speed.
Regulator-referenced method
UK MNOs apply content restriction filters (CRF) as standard. We check the CRF status: filter is active → under threshold. Filter removed → verified adult. This aligns with the methods cited by Ofcom as acceptable “MNO age checks”.
Builds privacy-first trust
Because no personal data flows to your platform and no documents are stored, zero-lifecycle risk sits with you. The user’s mobile operator is the verifier. You get a binary answer. No one sees the age, just a match or no match.
Flexible & adaptable
You can configure the threshold (18+, 21+, 55+) and combine with other signals (e.g. device match, SIM swap detection) to build richer assurance flows for higher-risk verticals (financial, iGaming, etc).
Instant integration
Age Verify fits easily into existing verification or checkout flows using a lightweight API. There’s no redesign, no additional interface, and no change to the user journey.
Identity and Age Providers
Verification vendors can integrate Age Verify as an additional signal alongside existing methods. It enhances accuracy, cuts abandonment, and adds a regulator-recognised check using live mobile-network data. This gives providers a stronger, lower-friction alternative to traditional document or biometric-based solutions.
Finance and Insurance
For services that rely on higher-age thresholds, such as pensions or retirement funds, Age Verify confirms eligibility quickly and silently in the background. It reduces friction during onboarding, eliminates paperwork, and strengthens fraud prevention by ensuring applicants meet the required age criteria.
Gambling and iGaming
Age Verify confirms that every player meets legal age requirements before registration or deposit, preventing under-age access and reducing costly manual checks. Operators benefit from faster onboarding, fewer drop-offs, and a clear audit trail that satisfies both compliance teams and regulators.
Adult Content and Media
Under Ofcom’s Online Safety Act, adult-content providers must use “highly effective” age checks. Age Verify enables this without intrusive identity steps or data storage, delivering instant confirmation from mobile networks. It keeps platforms compliant while preserving the seamless experience their subscribers expect.
Alcohol and eCommerce
At checkout, Age Verify instantly confirms that the purchaser is of legal age for alcohol, vapes, or lottery products. It replaces clumsy document uploads with a simple, real-time confirmation direct from the mobile network, reducing basket abandonment and supporting safer retail operations.
Tobacco and Vape
Digital tobacco and vape sales are high-risk for under-age use. Age Verify offers a discreet, regulator-aligned way to confirm eligibility before fulfilment, protecting both merchants and delivery partners. Instant verification prevents failed deliveries, chargebacks, and reputational damage linked to compliance breaches.
Built for enterprise-scale regulation, not just checkbox solutions
- No identity documents or biometric images collected by you.
- No data storage of personal identity details in your stack.
- No Personally Identifiable Information is seen or held by XConnect.
- End-to-end cryptographic connections with the operator ecosystem.
- Full audit-trail possibilities: you can show you used a “highly effective” age-assurance method.
- GDPR-aligned, replicates operator security controls, minimises your data-risk footprint.
Mobile Network Operators - The ultimate verification partner
MNOs are already in the business of verified identity. Every active SIM is tied to a regulated customer relationship that requires proof of age before access to unrestricted services is granted. This creates a verified, continuously maintained identity layer that no other ecosystem can match. Think about when your phone rings and your friend's name appears; you trust that it's them.
Unlike document uploads or facial scans that depend on user compliance or image quality, MNO verification happens at account creation under strict Know Your Customer (KYC) and anti-fraud regulations. These checks are refreshed whenever a user changes contract, updates details, or ports their number, ensuring accuracy.
For age assurance, this means the operator can confirm whether a customer is over a defined threshold based on verified records - securely, privately, and instantly. No documents are shared, no biometrics stored, and no additional user action is required.
This network-based model transforms age verification from a one-off, user-driven task into a trusted infrastructure capability. It delivers what regulators want - a “highly effective” verification method - and what platforms need: scale, reliability, and simplicity.
1. Fast real-time checks
Age Verify is built on the SAFr platform and uses live operator-verified data. The response from mobile operators is instant, meaning minimal delay in onboarding or login flows and zero disruption to your conversion rates.
2. Flexible thresholds & logic
Whether you need to confirm a user is over 18, over 21 or even over 55, our API handles it. Just pass the mobile number and age-criteria, and receive a simple true/false answer. No complicated workflows, no noise — just the cut-through you need instantly.
3. Mobile identity hardened
For decades the SIM card has under-pinned mobile identity — it’s never been hacked or spoofed at scale. Leveraging this trusted asset gives you an age-check foundation that is far more robust than document uploads, selfies or standalone databases.
4. Inclusive device coverage
Whether a user is on iOS, Android, a feature phone or a basic handset, the age check still runs in the background. Our approach is device-agnostic. That means no user intervention, no additional apps, no digital exclusion.
5. One API, many signals
Age Verify is just one signal in the stack. Via the same API you can add number-validity checks, SIM-swap detection, device match or other fraud-prevention layers. It reduces development overhead and keeps operations lean.
6. Proven telecom identity pedigree
XConnect brings together over 20 years of number intelligence network services, along with specialised mobile identity expertise teams. We connect live to operator networks, process billions of queries globally and deliver enterprise-grade compliance and scale.
Ready to implement?
Unbelievably easy to get started, the integration is lightweight, the setup process is fast, and the impact is immediate. Whether you’re testing compliance in one market or rolling out across multiple platforms, the path to full deployment is measured in days, not months - with XConnect guiding every step.
- Choose your threshold (18+, 21+, 55+).
- Define your age-gate flows .
- Plug in the Age Verify API - Bring Your Own API.
- Run a pilot with a low-risk segment in one market.
- Scale globally or across your flows with confidence.
How can I try Age Verify?
Very easily. We can give you a sandbox environment to allow you to try out Age Verify.
Our customer, partner, onboarding, technology and delivery teams are all experts, totally knowledgable about what we can do (and what we can’t) and are all yours during your XConnect journey, from initial enquiry, to POC, to switching on live service.
You've nothing to lose and everything to gain with an age verification solution that's built for compliance and designed for conversion.
