Why your video-gaming platform needs a security power-up

Like the best games, growing a business has always come with an element of risk. Controlling those risks and maximizing opportunity are an essential part of ensuring success. From underage users accessing age-restricted content, to hackers, cheats and bullies, gaming providers face a plethora of challenges.

Underage users

Given that the average gamer is 34 years old, there is good reason to create content for a mature audience. However, preventing underage users from accessing content designed for adults is both a moral and increasingly a legal imperative. Being able to accurately confirm the age of your users protects you from possible reputational damage if a young person is seen to have been adversely affected by accessing age-restricted content. More directly, it can protect you from punitive action by regulators for failure to comply with your legal obligations.

Hacking

As we all know, data in itself is extremely valuable these days.As a result, any business that holds customers’ personal data as part of its means of operating is open to risk. That risk increases considerably if financial data is involved. For gaming businesses, there is an added dimension: users’ game experience and in-game assets themselves have financial value and can be sold on the black market. Again, addressing the issue has both a moral and legal dimension. Your users are often highly invested in your products, both emotionally and financially. And data privacy regulations such as GDPR in Europe and the CCPA in California are rapidly becoming the norm.

Cheating

Players have been finding ways to bend and break the rules ever since games were invented. That’s why we have referees in basketball games and umpires in baseball. But in your gaming worlds, who’s dealing with offenders and ensuring a level playing field for your loyal users? Failing to deal with cheaters makes your games unenjoyable and annoying for legitimate players – if they end up going elsewhere, your business will be the one on the subs bench.

Bullying

While undoubtedly an issue in the real world, bullying and harassment is particularly rife in the virtual world, largely because offenders tend to face little in the way of consequences. In fact, a majority of gamers report encountering not just verbal insults and discrimination, but trolling, griefing and even physical threats. As with cheating, allowing bullying to go unaddressed risks harming your business by driving customers away from your platform.

Start with security

Ultimately, all these issues can stall your growth, hit your profits, or in the worst-case scenario, result in game over for your business. At the heart of all these issues is the need for effective identity verification (IDV). Ensuring people are who they say they are has the potential to eliminate both bad actors and bad behavior from your platform. However, your IDV solution needs to be fast, efficient and frictionless, or risk alienating your customer base and legitimate prospects.

Look out for future blogs, in which we’ll look at how the right IDV technology can address each of these issues. Or download our eBook, to find out how partnering with a third-party IDV provider like Veriff can make it game over for bad actors and game on for your legitimate users – and your business.