ResponsiTech has joined forces with AgeChecked, the leading age-verification company in the UK.

ResponsiTech is the international youth safety organization for the emerging cannabis industry with the mission of empowering the cannabis industry with youth safety technology and services.

AgeChecked is a specialist in global age verification. It provides a ‘verify once, use many times’, account-based system. Unlike identity verification companies, the technology used maintains the anonymity of the customer, and does not leave any footprint linked to the customers’ information. Alastair Graham CEO AgeChecked sits on the advisory committee of the British Standards Institute where he is assisting in establishing global age verification standards.

Since it became legal to sell cannabis in many states in the United States and other countries, access is no longer exclusively controlled via health care professionals. Consequently, it is important for the industry to increase youth safety efforts to safeguard against illicit youth access.

AgeChecked will be offering ResponsiTech members its age verification tools which enable merchants to verify the age of every customer. The tool integrated into the merchant systems within the buying process will prevent a payment or service transaction from taking place by someone underage, but without placing onerous barriers that interrupt a smooth user experience.

Alastair Graham, CEO of AgeChecked, said: “As with age-restricted items such as alcohol or tobacco, cannabis retailers need to put measures in place both for youth protection and to protect their own reputation as responsible retailers. It is critical that they can demonstrate their efforts to comply with government regulations.

ResponsiTech is playing a vital youth safety role in this industry and we are very pleased to be assisting the organization in its endeavors.”

Joan Irvine, CEO of ResponsiTech: “With the purchase of adult-use cannabis now legal in a number of states and countries by people 21 and over, the regulated industry must adopt genuine, compliant solutions to safeguard youth, and by doing so, meet their legal and ethical obligations. Simply checking a box on a site stating that one is over 21 is not sufficient and will be questioned by authorities as it is with other age-restricted products.

“It is important that our solutions provide the appropriate protections, but do not compromise the security and privacy of the adults legally buying such products.

“Buying cannabis is still a highly sensitive topic. We selected AgeChecked to help us achieve our aim safeguarding against illicit youth access while fostering properly regulating sales of the product as it offers the highest levels of protection and security for customers and businesses, combined with anonymity and data protection.”

Frederick Lane, a Brooklyn-based attorney and author specializing in cyber safety, privacy and technology law, said: “This is a terrific collaboration for ResponsiTech. The United States lags behind the UK and Europe in terms of protecting the personal data of its citizens. AgeChecked bring valuable practical experience to ResponsiTech’s efforts to protect children, and hopefully will help shape the discussion of privacy rights and protection here in the United States. That conversation grows more important every day, given the seemingly daily occurrence of significant data breaches have given their citizens more rights to privacy in respect to their personal data than in the US, which is very important in today’s world where data breaches seem to be a daily occurrence.

ResponsiTech’s engagement with AgeChecked is consistent with the ResponsiTech mission to engage ‘the best of breed’ to foster youth safety while supporting business.”