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Core concepts

Understanding k-ID's core concepts is essential for building compliant applications that properly handle age verification, parental consent, and user permissions. These concepts bridge the gap between legal requirements and technical implementation, helping you understand both why certain compliance measures are needed and how to implement them correctly.

Why these concepts matter​

Compliance with regulations such as COPPA, GDPR-K, and various regional laws requires understanding both the legal framework and the technical mechanisms that support compliance. k-ID's concepts map legal requirements to technical implementations, ensuring that your application:

  • Meets regulatory requirements across 200+ markets
  • Protects users appropriately based on their age and jurisdiction
  • Handles consent correctly when parental approval is required
  • Manages permissions effectively for different user types

Core concepts​

Age and jurisdiction fundamentals​

  • Age signals: Understanding what age signals are and how to provide them to k-ID
  • Jurisdictions: How geographic regions affect compliance requirements and age thresholds
  • Age assurance: The process of verifying or estimating a user's age to ensure compliance

The following concepts are essential for implementing Verifiable Parental Consent (VPC) flows:

  • Sessions: Long-lived objects that track player permissions and age status
  • Permissions: How to control access to game features based on age and consent
  • Challenges: How consent challenges work when parental approval is required
  • Verifiable Parental Consent (VPC): The regulatory requirement and process for obtaining parental consent
  • Verified parent linking (VPL): How a player invites their own parent to supervise their controls, distinct from the VPC consent gate
  • Payment-as-verification: How a completed card payment can stand in for parental consent where the credit-card verification method applies
  • Age gate: The mechanism for collecting and verifying user age
  • Permissions upgrade: Requesting additional permissions after initial consent
  • Trusted adult preferences: How parents configure consent and permission preferences
  • Data-lite mode: Providing limited access while waiting for parental consent
  • Essential features: Features required for a product to function, even if they require consent

Parent controls​

  • Screentime: How parents set daily limits, quiet hours, and break reminders, and how your product honors the verdict
  • Activity: How your product reports what a child did, and what a trusted adult sees
  • Transactions: How your product reports purchases and asks a parent to approve them before charging

Data and privacy​

  • Data notices: Disclosures about data collection, use, and sharing, and what data k-ID stores

Advanced scenarios​

Getting started​

If you're new to k-ID, start with these foundational concepts:

  1. Age signals - Understand what age information k-ID needs
  2. Jurisdictions - Learn how location affects compliance
  3. Sessions - Understand how permissions are tracked
  4. VPC - Learn how parental consent works

For more implementation guidance, see the Get started section or choose your integration approach in Choose integration.