How to Verify Age Without ID: Modern Solutions for Digital Age Checks

Written by: Zarema Plaksij

Published November 11, 2025

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Today, age verification is a fundamental step for businesses to comply with legal regulations and protect minors from accessing inappropriate content or services. Traditionally, this meant checking a photo ID, but not all users have physical IDs (especially children) or want to provide them for sites hosting age-sensitive content. So, how can age be verified without traditional identification? What are the alternative methods that businesses can use? 

In this article we’ll explore why verifying age without ID is important and for what business sectors, overview common cases where users have no ID, analyze the leading non-ID verification methods, their accuracy, and how they uphold privacy and compliance.

Why Age Verification Without ID is Important

Protecting minors online while respecting user privacy is a delicate balance.

Laws around the world – from the US COPPA child privacy law to the EU’s AVMSD media directive and the UK’s Online Safety Act – are forcing online platforms to prove they keep underage users out of harmful content. At the same time, companies must respect user privacy and avoid excluding legitimate users who simply don’t have an ID. There are also people who simply don’t want to provide IDs to sites, especially with adult material, because of privacy concerns. 

The good news is that modern age assurance techniques can even out the odds by allowing businesses to confirm a user’s age without demanding an ID document.

And there are many business sectors that require age checks to ensure legal compliance:

• Adult content: Highest emphasis, with strict age checks due to legal restrictions.
• Online gaming: Very high focus, especially for minors’ protection.
• Social media: Significant focus, particularly for platforms with youth audiences.
• E-commerce: Moderate focus, especially for age-restricted products.
• FinTech: Also important, especially for financial transactions involving minors.

Age assurance market is predicted to grow from $5.7 billion in 2025 to $10.4 billion by 2029. 

Age Verification vs. Age Assurance vs. Age Estimation

At this point, it’s important to make an important distinction between “age verification“, “age assurance” and “age estimation”. 

It’s very important for businesses to understand the difference between these three concepts because each serves distinct purposes with varying levels of certainty, privacy, and user friction.

The difference is critical because age estimation offers privacy-friendly and scalable age assurance, but with less precision than strict age verification. Organizations choose the approach based on legal requirements, risk tolerance, user experience, and privacy considerations.

Common Scenarios Where Users Lack an ID

According to the World Bank, around 850 million people in the world don’t have a government-issued ID, mainly in low-income regions of Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, including many children and marginalized groups. Apart from the obvious reasons, such as documentary challenges, access difficulties, and cost barriers, some users are also unbanked or lack traditional financial credentials. Let’s zoom in on the key groups that don’t have IDs:

Minors and Teenagers 

Young people under a certain age often do not have a government-issued ID. As a rule, most teens don’t have a driver’s license until late adolescence, and many children have no passport or official ID card. What they might have is a school ID, which isn’t always accepted for verification. Yet these minors are the very group often needing age checks to access teen-appropriate sections of a platform. So, requiring a formal ID from a 15-year-old child simply isn’t practical.

Unbanked or Undocumented Individuals

When it comes to adults, there are certain groups that lack formal identification or financial instruments mostly due to living in remote regions, poverty, or bureaucratic barriers. But even in developed countries, there is a substantial number of adults who live without a photo ID. Surprisingly, around 11% of US citizens (over 21 million people) have no government-issued photo ID. Undocumented adults also include the elderly, those who don’t drive, or others who simply never obtained a state ID.

Privacy-conscious Users

In some cases, people do have IDs but simply don’t want to share them online. And such unwillingness is not unreasonable: frequent data breaches and identity theft make people be extremely cautious to upload a scan of their passport online. They question the security of data collection and storage. These users prefer methods that prove their age without exposing personal details.

Cultural Factors

Whether or not a person has an ID also depends on regional traditions, as not all countries issue national ID cards, and people might rely on local documents that aren’t recognized elsewhere. Additionally, some cultures don’t prioritize carrying ID for youth. Online businesses with a global user base must account for users from places where verifying identity isn’t straightforward.

How to Verify Age Without ID

It’s time to get practical and discuss how companies can confirm someone’s age without asking for a physical ID and highlight the most t common and effective non-ID verification methods:

Biometric Age Estimation

This age estimation method is known as facial analysis that works like this: a user takes a selfie or video, then an AI system analyzes their features to determine an approximate age in seconds. The facial age estimation technology looks at patterns that change with age, like bone structure, skin features, and so on, and compares them to vast datasets of faces with known ages. 

When exact age is unnecessary, this method works really well and can reach 99% accuracy if set up according to KJM’s recommendations. focusing instead on whether users are above or below key age thresholds. Interesting fact – a study showed that AI face checks can outperform human judgment, i.e. they are more accurate than human estimators of age.

Credit or Phone Number Verification

This method of age verification uses the existing “adult” credentials a user might have, such as a credit card or a mobile phone account.

• Credit card as a verification method. The idea is that credit cards are generally available only to adults, i.e. people over the age of 18.  So, if a user can provide a valid credit card number, it strongly indicates they are an adult. Websites either ask for a card number and expiry date to meet age-check requirements or perform a small verification charge – say a refundable $1 deposit – to ensure the card is active. Of course, sometimes children can get hold of parents’ credit cards, so caution is necessary. 
• Mobile phone (SIM) as a verification method. Some mobile carriers apply age filters on services by default, meaning that new SIM cards or phone contracts are set to block adult content until the account holder proves they’re over 18. Convenient for the user, this method may be faulty if a child gets hold of their parent’s phone, which is age-verified, to access age restricted content. 

Document Proxy Verification

This method uses trusted third-party confirmations or people’s attestations as proof of age. 

• School or employer records. A student ID with a birthdate or report card could serve as age proof. Employer records, like work contracts or employee ID may also verify that some is an adult. However, such age proofs aren’t common for automated online checks and often require a manual review process.
• Professional or community vouching. A process when a trusted person in the community, like a teacher, doctor, lawyer, notary, guarantor, or other professional, confirms the user’s age. They must have an existing relationship with the user and be in a position of authority. This method doesn’t require the user to have any ID or digital footprint at all, just someone credible (provided they too can verify their credentials) who can back up their claim.
• Parental consent. Whenever children are involved, parents or guardians can serve as the proxy for ID. In accordance with COPPA, kids under 13 must provide their parents’ consent to verify their identity/age, thereby vouching for the child. For example, a video game portal might implement this by asking the parent to complete an age check or ID verification (via their credit card) on behalf of the child. While practical, this method relies heavily on honesty; it assumes the person giving consent is truly the parent/guardian and will manage the child’s access responsibly.

Database or Payment Reference 

Another way is to cross-check user data against verified databases or payment card types.  

• Credit bureaus and public records. Services can verify age by checking a user’s details (name, address, date of birth) against credit bureaus or public databases that contain age information, by returning a yes/no response. This method conveniently works during the signup, and users don’t take extra steps. However, it requires people to have records in these databases, such as credit history, or voter registration, excluding young people and those outside the formal economy. It also depends on users providing accurate information.
• Open banking and payment records. Since banks verify customers’ ages when opening accounts, users can consent to let a service confirm their age directly with their bank, meaning that no document upload is needed. The bank simply confirms the user is 18+ without sharing full details. In a similar way, digital wallets and payment platforms can verify that an account holder is an adult based on their initial identity checks.
• Verified identity or single sign-on. Digital ID platforms allow one-time verification that can be reused across multiple sites. Users can verify their age once with an identity provider, then use a sign-on token to access other sites without re-verifying. This way, the sites only receive confirmation of age, never the actual ID document.

Third-Party Digital Age Gateways

Many businesses turn to specialized third-party age verification services. In a way they outsource the age verification problem to privacy experts, who employ multiple non-ID verification techniques. This helps to offer a smooth and convenient customer experience, while ensuring compliance. For example, Ondato’s OnAge is a reusable and anonymous age verification solution for anonymous age checks.

Here is how it works:

• The user verifies their age by taking a selfie once. Then the system uses facial age estimation to categorize the user’s age. What’s important, OnAge does not store any personal identifiable information from that process.
• The result is simply a flag that “Yes, this user is old enough” without revealing their actual age or identity.
• Then a user gets a PIN code as a simple credential, which they can use for future proof of age. OnAge remembers the device on which age was already verified (without remembering the identity information like face, name, or other personally identifiable information).
• When the user visits another site that uses the same age-check service, they can reuse that verification (enter the PIN or use a token) to gain access without repeating the entire process.

Such an approach reduces friction and cost, as well as makes the user’s life easier because they don’t have to keep uploading IDs or pictures for every website – one verification covers a certain time period or multiple services.

How Accurate Are Non-ID Age Verification Methods?

Non-ID age verification methods have become accurate enough to satisfy regulators. Thus, biometric face analysis can achieve an impressive 95-99% accuracy in estimating whether a person is 18 years old or higher, blocking up to 100% of underage users from getting access to adult material.

As to using phone numbers or credit cards for age verification, this method is great when it works; i.e. if a mobile carrier confirms a line is adult-verified, then it’s usually accurate. However, these methods have gaps and work best as a first filter to screen out obvious underage users, with additional verification for others.

It’s worth noting that no single non-ID age assurance method is 100% foolproof. Yes, they are remarkably accurate, but only when properly executed. So, the organizations opting to adopt these should pay attention to calibration, bias testing, and appropriate combination of methods to match the needed assurance level.

Privacy and Compliance Considerations

Without a doubt, privacy is the biggest concern these days. That’s why modern age verification methods must preserve users’ privacy at all costs and comply with data protection laws like GDPR, COPPA, etc. 

First of all, a cutting-edge development in privacy is the use of cryptography to prove age without revealing it, aka zero-knowledge proof. Google recently released a Zero-Knowledge Proof solution that verifies someone is over 18 without sharing birthdates or IDs. A trusted provider issues a cryptographic token saying, “this user is 18+,” which websites accept without learning anything else. The EU is exploring similar approaches with its digital identity wallet, where users prove age via an app without sharing other details.

Second, privacy regulations like GDPR require collecting only a necessary set of data. Many age verification methods gather only a minimal amount of data. For example, facial age estimation can analyze images instantly and discard them without storing anything. Ondato’s OnAge keep users completely anonymous, remembering only that someone was verified as old enough. By not storing identifiers or biometrics, these systems comply with regulations and eliminate data breach risks.

Third, privacy-first solutions give users control over their data by explicitly expressing their consent when logging into their bank and approving the age check. Many services offer method choices and explain what data is used. Thus, the UK and EU regulations require transparency, meaning that users should know how their age will be verified, which builds trust and ensures informed consent.

Finally, the overall user’s privacy depends on both what data is collected and how it’s handled. That’s why reputable services use encryption and security certifications for any data transmission. These methods actually improve privacy compared to uploading IDs to every website, and, most importantly, reduce the number of entities that see sensitive documents and low leak risks. Only one verifier (or none) sees your ID, while websites get just a Yes/No answer.

The Future of Age Verification

All future developments clearly point toward AI-driven solutions combined with decentralized digital identities and government-issued digital IDs. Another clear tendency is to ensure maximum data protection and a frictionless user experience.

Here are a few predictions of how non-ID age verification will develop in the nearest future:

1. AI age estimation will improve with better datasets, more advanced algorithms, and systems with multimodal biometrics – analyzing not just faces but voice tone, typing patterns, or browsing behavior to evaluate maturity. For example, an AI-powered voice analysis could verify age in game chat moderation. This way the age check is minimal and happens in the background, while remaining highly accurate.
2. People will be able to use reusable, user-controlled, digital identity systems. For example, the European Digital Identity Wallet, which is planned to be launched in 2026, will let people store verified credentials on their phones and prove age without exposing ID details. Also, more countries are introducing mobile driver’s licenses and digital ID cards, which can generate QR codes showing the age, like “21+”.
3. Zero-Knowledge Proofs and similar cryptographic checks, where neither party learns anything except “yes, this person is an adult”, will become common. This will improve the balance between privacy and safety requirements.
4. Verification systems will become interconnected. For example, Europe’s euCONSENT framework aims to create an interoperable network where age verification on one platform can be accepted by others via trusted tokens, like single sign-on for age. Standards from IEEE and ISO will ensure “18+ tokens” are universally recognized across providers.

To sum up, it seems like all future non-ID age verification methods will be nearly invisible – browsers or operating systems will handle age verification in the background using stored credentials or on-device AI. And, hopefully, when interaction is needed, it will be more user-friendly, like “smile for a quick age check”, making compliance more fun.

Written by: Zarema Plaksij

Published November 11, 2025

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