Canada OKs Standard for Age Verification and Estimation

Published Date : 8/8/2025 

Canada has taken a significant step in online safety by approving a national standard for age verification and estimation technologies, ensuring a reliable and privacy-preserving approach. 

Canada is taking its place in the increasingly-crowded queue to implement online age assurance requirements, with a national standard approved Thursday by the Standards Council of Canada.

The CAN/DGSI 127: 2025, Age Verification — Age Assurance Technologies is expected to be published to the Digital Governance Council’s website in the next couple of weeks. This standard specifies minimum requirements for age assurance technologies and methods to verify a person’s age or estimate their age range.

CAN/DGSI 127 requires that organizations implementing age assurance start by performing a Child Rights Impact Assessment (CRIA). The standard sets out minimum requirements for the effectiveness of age assurance technologies and methods, guidelines for risk assessments and compliance with the standard, and criteria for selecting a suitable age assurance method for a given application. It also provides principles for designing age assurance technologies and protocols for carrying out age checks.

The standard is intended to be platform-agnostic, promoting a reliable, privacy-preserving approach to age assurance. The Digital Governance Standards Institute (DGSI) carried out a 60-day public review starting on December 4, 2024. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) shared key insights from its exploratory consultation on age assurance in March, which highlighted the diversity of technologies that can be used for the same purpose and a set of contentious considerations. It also suggested that biometric facial age estimation 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS): 

Q: What is the CAN/DGSI 127 standard?

A: CAN/DGSI 127: 2025 is a national standard approved by the Standards Council of Canada that specifies minimum requirements for age assurance technologies and methods to verify a person’s age or estimate their age range.

Q: What is the Child Rights Impact Assessment (CRIA)?

A: CRIA is a requirement under the CAN/DGSI 127 standard that organizations must perform before implementing age assurance technologies to ensure they consider the impact on children's rights.

Q: What is the main goal of the CAN/DGSI 127 standard?

A: The main goal of the CAN/DGSI 127 standard is to promote a reliable, privacy-preserving approach to age assurance, ensuring that technologies used for age verification and estimation are effective and safe.

Q: What happened to Bill S-210?

A: Bill S-210, a proposal to establish a legal basis for age verification, was approved by the Senate and passed the committee stage in the House of Commons in 2024 but died with the conclusion of the parliamentary session at the beginning of 2025.

Q: Why is there a renewed effort to pass age assurance legislation in Canada?

A: The renewed effort to pass age assurance legislation in Canada is driven by the need to protect children online, taking into account criticisms of the previous bill and drawing inspiration from similar efforts in the UK and EU. 

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