Goal: 100% Age-Verified Users on Yubo!

In May 2022, Yubo announced it was introducing an age verification system developed in partnership with digital identity provider, Yoti. The new software allows Yubo to further strengthen safety measures and allows Yubo users to be confident that they’re interacting with others of a similar age group. Yubo first launched the technology in beta for users ages 13 and 14, with the goal of scaling the technology across its entire user base by the end of the year - a first for a social network of Yubo’s size! 

🎉 Today, we are proud to announce that we are one step closer to becoming the first social media platform to age-verify 100% of our users, with all Apple users successfully verified three months ahead of schedule. 🎉

This initiative is part of Yubo's commitment to the safety of its users. In an ever-changing digital world, our team continues to innovate and find new solutions so that we can provide our users with the safest possible experience on Yubo. Age and identity verification issues are amongst the greatest challenges facing the entire industry today, and our new age verification system puts us one step closer to mitigating the issues associated. 

How does the age verification system work?

The age verification system asks all new users joining Yubo, and all users already registered across Yubo who have not been verified yet, to verify their identity using Yoti’s age-estimation technology. To do so, each user is prompted to take a real-time photo of their face, which Yoti’s technology uses to estimate their age and compare it against the date of birth provided at sign-up. 

Within a few seconds, users are told if the age verification was successful and if so, they can immediately begin socialising on Yubo. 

This system is completely privacy-friendly and only requires additional identification steps if the user’s age doesn’t match the age listed at sign-up. 

Why does Yubo keep asking me to verify?

In order to use Yubo, all of our users must now go through our new age verification system. It allows us to enhance the accuracy of age-gating and prevent users who may misrepresent their age with ill intent from joining our platform. 

At Yubo, our foremost priority is to create a safe environment for our users and to empower them to interact safely online and with others across the world. To do this, we continuously look for new ways to protect our users. The development of this age verification tool not only addresses one of the largest challenges in online safety today but provides another level of protection to our young users. 

We want all our users to feel safe and be authentic on Yubo. If a user refuses to verify their age, they will not be able to enter the app and will be asked to verify their age every time they attempt to log in. 

So now, you know what you have to do to connect with your friends on Yubo!

Why is checking the age of users important for social networks?

Age and identity verification are some of the biggest challenges within the industry. While some major social media apps have verification processes in place, they are not implemented widely across their platforms and are not required upon sign up.

This issue is central, as it helps to reduce the proliferation of bots, and duplicate profiles, which are detrimental to social networks that are committed to providing a safe and authentic experience for their users.

At Yubo, we have always advocated for authentic socialization, and we ask that all profile pictures show the user’s face, both as a way to combat abuse and so that users know who they are talking to.

How does this protect our users?

Wide-scale age verification plays an important part in further strengthening Yubo’s robust safety framework. 

The age verification system primarily aims to enhance the accuracy of age gating on Yubo, which separates users into different communities based on age to limit interaction between teens and adults. Yubo is among only a handful of social media platforms to use age-gating measures today.

And as mentioned above, the wide-scale deployment of the age verification system has allowed us to clean up the Yubo community and remove fake profiles, bots, or users who may misrepresent their age with bad intentions. 

Has this had an impact on the Yubo community?

Our community’s quick action has allowed us to expedite platform-wide deployment with 87% of users verified on the first attempt. Of course, many profiles were blocked - either because a discrepancy in age was detected by Yoti’s age estimation or because the user did not want to proceed. 

Our priority is protecting our users and keeping our community as safe as possible, even if that means forfeiting a larger user base or driving away a portion of new users.

Can you trust Yubo verification?

Yoti’s age-estimation technology is able to correctly verify that a user is above or below an age threshold consistently across all ages, genders, and skin tones. The technology is certified by iBeta, the gold standard for technologies in this field.

We’ve been partnering with Yoti since 2019, and their technology, trusted by government agencies and major retail and financial services firms amongst others, was the natural fit to make this new system a success.