Ishita Nigam
16 Oct 2023
Not only social media or edtech platforms but all companies will have to deploy age gating mechanisms for website visitors.
The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDPA) mandates that all companies besides social media and edtech platforms deploy age gating or verification mechanisms for all customers to ensure minors don’t browse online without parental consent. The law specifies that personal data of kids and persons with disabilities should be processed only with parental or guardian consent.
The age gating clause stipulates that companies must know who visits them online and secure their verifiable consent. This has triggered a series of doubts among businesses. Industry experts translate this as all companies must deploy age gating measures involving a three-step verification of the child’s age, the parental identity, and proving that the two are related.
Another popular question is whom to approach for parental consent – the father or the mother, as government IDs usually have the father’s name as the listed parent.