Yoti adds ConnectID to Australia age assurance platform

Yoti has added ConnectID to its age assurance platform in Australia, giving businesses another way to verify age as online age-checking rules expand.

The integration lets people prove they are above a required age threshold through their banking app, using information their bank has already verified. The platform receives only a confirmation that the user is over a specific age, such as 16 or 18, rather than personal details such as a name or date of birth.

The change comes as Australia broadens age assurance requirements under its Age-Restricted Material Codes. The rules now extend to areas including R18+ online games and app stores that offer R18+ apps.

For online platforms, the shift increases pressure to introduce checks that confirm a user meets a minimum age without making the process more cumbersome or collecting more personal information than necessary. The ConnectID option means businesses using Yoti's system do not need to build a separate direct integration with the bank-backed identity service.

How it works

Users who select ConnectID are redirected to their banking app, where their details have already been verified. The bank then returns a simple age result to the platform, such as whether the person is over 16 or over 18.

According to the companies, no identity documents are uploaded or shared with the platform during the process. No additional personal data is passed on either, including date of birth, name, or biometric information.

The model is intended to separate age verification from identity verification. That distinction is becoming more important as online services face a growing number of rules requiring checks on access to restricted content, but not necessarily full identification of the user.

Yoti provides age assurance and digital identity products across sectors including social media, retail, dating, gaming, gambling, and vaping. ConnectID is an Australian digital identity service supported by major domestic banks and operated as an initiative of Australian Payments Plus, which runs parts of the country's payments infrastructure, including eftpos, BPAY, and the NPP real-time payments system.

Privacy focus

Both companies presented the integration as a way to give businesses and users more choice in how online age checks are carried out. The focus is on confirming an age threshold while limiting the information disclosed in the transaction.

"As age checks become increasingly common online, businesses need age assurance that is effective, secure and privacy-preserving. We're giving companies a range of proven methods so they can strengthen age checks, respond to evolving regulations and give customers a choice in how they prove their age," said Robin Tombs, Chief Executive Officer, Yoti.

ConnectID has already been used as an age assurance option on other large online platforms. Adding it to Yoti's platform broadens its reach into services that already use Yoti for age verification, particularly as regulated age checks spread into gaming and other digital categories.

For banks and payment-linked identity networks, age assurance creates a practical use case for verified customer information already held within financial services. For digital platforms, it offers a way to comply with rules without collecting sensitive documents directly from users.

Rick Iversen, Head of ConnectID, ConnectID, said: "ConnectID is designed around a simple principle: share only the minimum needed. If a platform needs to know that you're over 16 or over 18, that's the information it receives and nothing else - not your date of birth, not a copy of your identity document, and not your biometrics."

ConnectID also pointed to the direction of regulation and rising user expectations around privacy in online checks.

"As age assurance becomes part of more online experiences, this is an important opportunity to make privacy part of the solution from the outset. Yoti's adoption of ConnectID will make that choice available across more platforms and services in Australia," Iversen said.