The demand for single-player gaming is now coming to an end. Each game is getting its multiplayer updates. The new era of battle royale is taking over old-school offline games. With millions of users choosing gaming as their profession, the esports industry is experiencing brisk growth. Gaming platforms are created to onboard new players, these networks enable secure interaction and communication between users from all over the world. As the market size is increasing revenue generation is also on the rise. According to the news, the gaming market size will hike up to $435 billion by the end of 2028.
Risks Experienced By The Gaming Platforms
The gaming community faces multiple threats, as attackers are making new increments in the sector. The major risk is imposed on underage individuals or minors. Children always find games a source of fun. The bad actors use these platforms to lure the minors into traps by offering them new games to play. The impact of these illicit activities is completely negative on the mind. As per Shufti Pro news, the gaming platforms are used by cybercriminals to train minors to launder their illicit gains and convert them into money mules. To restrict the criminals, multiple checks and assessments such as age verification, etc. are practiced by gaming corporations.
What is Age Verification?
Age verification is an operation to detect and verify the age of the customer. The process to verify age is executed by most businesses and organizations. It combines multiple ways of evaluating a client’s age. The gaming industry is no different. After multiple cases of child abuse, age verification checks are deployed within the gaming engines.
Age Verification Solution
Most users experience age checks at different phases of the game. Firstly the game prompts the client to enter their date of birth at the time of gamer registration. After successfully creating a game account the user is also asked to confirm their details by entering their age manually. The game engine stores the player information in the repository of the corporation. Most games are developed with specific age ratings in mind, as the new games carry explicit content with photorealistic graphics, the developers always release age guidelines before the official launch of the game. The age verification solution is implemented on the basis of these guidelines. If the age of the user matches the given age recommendation, the system allows access to the in-game content.
Age Verification Via Player Documents
The games that carry a high volume of age-restricted content perform strict verification checks on their consumers. The gaming system prompts the player to upload their official document that displays their date of birth. The most asked piece of official paperwork is the identity card of the customer. The digital copy i.e. image of the ID card is uploaded to the system for verification. The identity card carries all the information related to the person’s name, age, and gender. The gaming engines use optical character recognition to extract the information from the uploaded file of the user. Lastly, the information is compared to calculate the correct age of the user.
Age Verification With KYCC Compliance
The methodology adopted by gaming systems in ensuring the age of the player is based on KYCC compliance. Know Your Customer’s Customer check is a way of evaluating the age of the player based on their in-game interactions. Attackers use multiple strategies to get the most out of the game resources. They implant online cheating tools and bots to manoeuvre the data of the players. Children’s actions are monitored by comparing with the age group data sets of machine learning.
The main purpose of attempting multiple attacks on gamers’ accounts is to steal user identity information and launder money via the gaming platforms. As per Shufti Pro funding, £19.6m was paid by firms in the UK due to money laundering conducted from their platforms. To comply with KYCC compliance, the player is monitored by the gaming service providers to verify their actions. The interactions with other players are notified, and their communication and team-ups are also observed via the automated systems. The third-party connections are restricted as per KYCC compliance.
Conclusion
The era of gaming has changed and it is becoming more and more competitive with time. The players are investing their time and assets into these gaming platforms. The upcoming games are based on realism and are meant to be played by grownups only. To protect underage users, especially children, the gaming engines implement online age verification checks. It uses multiple methods to verify the age of the client.
