An online age verification scheme has been launched to help fight paedophilia and fraud online.

CitizenCard has come up with an online age verification system, interactiveAge (iAC), which will help web site operators check the age and identity of the users surfing their sites.


Anybody using an iAC accredited site will have to provide their personal details, this information is sent to the iAC processing centre for verification, using information from the CitizenCard application and publically available databases.


If the user is not known, or if their details don't match those supplied by the website, they'll be denied access to those pages. 


According to CitizenCard the scheme, which is the first of this kind in the UK, will cut down on the number of youngsters visiting adult websites and will make it harder for paedophiles to find young victims in chatrooms.


Andrew Chevis, chief executive officer of CitizenCard said: "We believe iAC will make the internet a safer place for young people, adult consumers and retailers alike. It will allow people of the right age to access the services they're entitled to, while denying it to those who aren't."


The new scheme has the support of the Home Office. Hilary Benn, Home Office Minister responsible for child safety online said: "We support all positive steps to assist in providing online authentication, which provides protection for consumers and peace of mind for parents."

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