Age Verification

Age verification is required across industries — alcohol and tobacco delivery, online gambling, social media platforms, and age-restricted content. Verifa extracts date of birth from government-issued IDs and calculates age automatically, so you never have to trust self-reported ages.

Why document-based age verification

Self-reported birthdates are trivially falsified. Credit-card checks only confirm the cardholder is 18+, not the actual user. Document-based verification extracts the date of birth directly from a government ID and pairs it with a selfie to confirm the person presenting the document is the document holder.

How it works with Verifa

1. Create a session — Your server creates a verification session via the API
2. User completes capture — Photographs their ID and takes a selfie
3. Verifa extracts and checks — OCR reads the date of birth, calculates age, and face match confirms the user matches the ID photo
4. You get a clear result — age_check_passed: true/false with the extracted age

Quick implementation

Create a session

$
curl -X POST https://api.withverifa.com/api/v1/sessions \
>
  -H "X-API-Key: vk_live_your_key_here" \
>
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
>
  -d '{
>
    "external_ref": "user_abc123",
>
    "country": "US"
>
  }'

The minimum age threshold is configured in your workflow, not per-session. When you add the Age Verification check to your workflow in the dashboard, you set the minimum_age value there (e.g., 18, 21, 25). See the Creating a Workflow tutorial for how to configure this.

Check the result

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{
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  "session_id": "session_abc123",
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  "external_ref": "user_abc123",
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  "status": "approved",
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  "result": {
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    "age_check_passed": true,
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    "extracted_age": 28,
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    "face_match_passed": true,
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    "face_match_score": 0.94,
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    "extracted_data": {
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      "date_of_birth": "1997-06-15",
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      "document_type": "drivers_license",
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      "document_issuing_state": "CA"
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    }
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  },
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  "processing_mode": "workflow",
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  "created_at": "2026-01-15T12:05:00Z"
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}

The age_check_passed field gives you a direct boolean — no date math required on your end.

Recommended workflow

For age verification, a minimal workflow is usually sufficient:

Capture → Document Scan → Face Match → Age Verification → Auto-Approve

Build this in the dashboard using the workflow builder, or use the “Age Gate” template when creating a new workflow.

The following checks run automatically on every session — you don’t need to add them to your workflow:

• Watchlist screening — Screens against OFAC, EU, UN, and UK sanctions
• Risk assessment — Scores 150+ fraud signals to catch bots, virtual cameras, and other fraud attempts
• Identity cross-reference — Compares user-submitted data against OCR-extracted data (if you collect user info)

For stricter compliance (e.g., UK Online Safety Act, Australia Social Media Age Act), consider adding these optional checks to your workflow:

• Duplicate detection — Prevent the same person from creating multiple accounts
• Document expiration — Reject expired IDs

Embedding with verifa.js

For age-gated checkout flows, use a popup or modal so the user stays on your page:

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<script src="https://app.withverifa.com/static/verifa.js"></script>
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<script>
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  document.getElementById('verify-age-btn').addEventListener('click', async () => {
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    const res = await fetch('/api/create-age-verification', { method: 'POST' });
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    const session = await res.json();
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    Verifa.open({
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      captureUrl: session.capture_url,
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      sessionId: session.id,
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      mode: 'modal',
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      onComplete: (data) => {
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        // Unlock age-gated content
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        document.getElementById('checkout-btn').disabled = false;
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      },
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      onError: (err) => {
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        console.error('Verification failed:', err);
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      }
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    });
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  });
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</script>

Regulatory context

Verifa’s document-based approach satisfies all of these — the extracted age comes directly from a government ID, not self-attestation.

Related

• Tutorial: Creating a Workflow — Build a workflow with age verification step by step
• Quickstart — Create your first session in 5 minutes
• Verifications & Checks — All available check types
• Workflows — Customize the verification pipeline
• JavaScript SDK — Embed verification in your frontend
• Fraud Signals — 150+ signals to detect fake verifications