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The 37 framework clauses the analysis builds on
ISO/IEC 27566-1:2025 is the published framework, and ISO makes it available free of charge. It supplies the vocabulary, the five indicators of confidence, the privacy and security objectives and the practice statement. The third part does not start from nothing, so a comparison that ignores the framework is comparing systems against a question the standard has already defined.
Part 1 is published. The clause wording on this site is our statement of the public working draft held at the ETSI document box, not a reproduction of the published edition. Check each line against the official text, which is linked on every page.
4 Characterisation
| Clause | Title | What it supplies |
|---|---|---|
| 4.1 | The parts of an age assurance system | The framework builds an age assurance system from one or more assurance components plus a processing sub-system. The com... |
| 4.1.1 | Age assurance components | A component establishes an age attribute from something a person knows, possesses or is, from a trusted attestation, or ... |
| 4.1.2 | Primary and secondary credentials | A primary credential comes from a body with the recognised authority to issue or hold the attribute. A secondary credent... |
| 4.1.3 | The processing sub-system | The processing sub-system gathers components, guards against attacks, handles contra-indicators, combines sources, suppo... |
| 4.2 | Guidance for policy makers | A policy maker sets the eligibility rule, the permitted assurance approaches, the criteria providers must meet and the a... |
| 4.3.1 | Age verification | Verification computes age from the difference between the current date and a date of birth held in a document or authori... |
| 4.3.2 | Age estimation | Estimation derives age from features or behaviour inherent in the person, often through biometric analysis. The framewor... |
| 4.3.3 | Age inference | Inference derives an age attribute from a credential or fact that implies age, such as a marriage certificate or a paren... |
| 4.4 | Practice statements | A provider documents the operational practices behind its assured age attributes, and a relying party documents the appr... |
| 4.5 | Age assurance service providers | A provider can stand between the person and the relying party, derive the attribute and disclose only the minimum. Where... |
| 4.6 | Acceptability to the individual | A person should be able to form a view on whether a solution meets their privacy and security expectations. Each solutio... |
5 Attribute
| Clause | Title | What it supplies |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | The age assurance attribute | The framework counts age in years as a real number since birth. A relying party can ask for an actual age, an over-age, ... |
6 Indicators of confidence
| Clause | Title | What it supplies |
|---|---|---|
| 6.1 | The five indicators of confidence | The framework sets five core indicators: asserted, basic, standard, enhanced and strict. It does not fix their technical... |
| 6.1.1 | Asserted age assurance | Asserted assurance is the age a person claims, with no component used to validate it. It is a low indicator of confidenc... |
| 6.1.2 | Basic age assurance | Basic assurance is the first level above an unvalidated claim. The public working draft on benchmarking gives it an exte... |
| 6.1.3 | Standard age assurance | Standard assurance sits in the middle of the scale. The public working draft on benchmarking gives it an external benchm... |
| 6.1.4 | Enhanced age assurance | Enhanced assurance is a high point on the scale. The public working draft on benchmarking gives it an external benchmark... |
| 6.1.5 | Strict age assurance | Strict assurance is the top of the published scale. The public working draft on benchmarking gives it an external benchm... |
| 6.2.1 | Indicators for verification systems | For a verification system the indicator reflects the authority of the record, the integrity of the document and the bind... |
| 6.2.2 | Indicators for estimation systems | For an estimation system the indicator reflects the measured error, the challenge age, the demographic spread and the re... |
| 6.2.3 | Indicators for inference systems | For an inference system the indicator reflects the validity of the credential and the strength of the rule that turns it... |
7 Privacy objectives
| Clause | Title | What it supplies |
|---|---|---|
| 7.1.1 | The date of birth is not disclosed | The system should avoid disclosing a person's date of birth to the relying party. The age attribute can be delivered wit... |
| 7.1.2 | Non-disclosure of the age | Where the decision only needs an over-age or under-age result, the system should not disclose the exact age. The eligibi... |
| 7.1.3 | Unlinkability | The system should prevent an observer from linking two age assurance transactions to the same person when the service do... |
| 7.1.4 | Untraceability | The system should not let an observer trace a person's movements or activity through the age assurance service beyond wh... |
| 7.1.5 | Attributes minimisation | The system should process only the attributes it needs for the age decision. Extra identity data is a privacy cost with ... |
| 7.1.6 | User awareness | The system should tell the person what is being checked, what is retained and what is disclosed, in language they can un... |
| 7.1.7 | Conditional attribute exchange | The system should release an attribute only when the condition for releasing it is met, rather than releasing it by defa... |
8 Security objectives
| Clause | Title | What it supplies |
|---|---|---|
| 8.1.1 | Binding to the correct individual | The system should bind the age determination to the person in front of it, so that a correct attribute cannot be used by... |
| 8.1.2 | Detection of collusion | The system should detect patterns in which people cooperate to defeat the assurance, such as one person supplying a cred... |
| 8.1.3 | Memorisation by a remote site | The system should limit the ability of a remote site to store and replay an age determination attribute.... |
| 8.1.4 | Freshness of a credential | The system should let the relying party judge whether a credential or result is fresh enough for the decision at hand.... |
| 8.1.5 | Forwarding only where allowed | The system should allow an age attribute to be forwarded to another provider only where the person or the policy permits... |
| 8.2.1 | Biometric presentation attacks | An estimation system that uses biometrics should resist presentation attacks. The framework points to the ISO/IEC 30107 ... |
9 Attacks and contra-indicators
| Clause | Title | What it supplies |
|---|---|---|
| 9.1 | Attack and contra-indicator analysis | The framework treats attacks and contra-indicators as a system concern. The provider should look for evidence that the a... |
| 9.2 | Attack vectors | An attack vector is a path by which someone tries to circumvent the process for a malicious outcome. The framework expec... |
| 9.3 | Contra-indicators | A contra-indicator is evidence that calls an age attribute into question. It can sit with the person, such as conflictin... |