France will soon require all adult websites to implement an age verification system. French leaders voted unanimously to implement age verification to protect minors by blocking pornographic images from children and adolescents under the age of 18. This follows a similar law passed by the UK a year ago that was later abandoned. France is taking a different approach, being less strict by providing several options on what will be considered as an acceptable means of verifying age. This leaves the responsibility up to private companies on how they handle age verification. The French Parliament is suggesting using credit card verification.
Segpay has several solutions already in place to help merchants in France with the new age verification requirements. The solutions include:
- An available API that allows merchants to lookup a credit card number to determine if it was ever used for a successful transaction at Segpay. This is helpful for more advanced merchants who want to build their own system and just use the lookup.
- The ability to do an authorization only transaction for one or two Euros in order to validate the card. The transaction is never captured, meaning the consumer is never charged. Segpay provides a special pay page which clearly communicates to the consumer that they won’t be charged. This is a fast and easy way to put a solution in place with minimal effort.
- Segpay’s Amount Verification system provides a more thorough process, authorizing a small amount on the consumer’s card that must be validated by the merchant. This helps ensure the person with the card is the person with access to the account.
Failing to comply with France’s new requirement could result in sanctions like blocking access to merchant’s websites in France. A final vote will be held again in the Senate where the bill is expected to pass. No date has been projected on when this change will be implemented.
If you have questions on this, please reach out. We’re here to help, contact your sales representative or email us at [email protected].
