AGEWARDEN
Show HN: Voice Age Verification
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What is AGEWARDEN?
AGEWARDEN is a drop-in widget that determines whether a website visitor is above or below the age of 18 from a few seconds of their voice. A user taps a button, speaks for a few seconds, and the website receives a binary decision - old enough or not. The tool requires no government ID, no facial scan, and no account creation. The entire interaction takes under thirty seconds and works on any device with a microphone.
The system runs inside a sandboxed iframe, meaning the website never touches the voice data directly. AGEWARDEN processes the audio, returns the result, and permanently deletes everything within one hour. The tool examines pitch, cadence, and vocal patterns that correlate with age to produce a pass/fail result. No voiceprints, no speaker profiles, and no biometric templates are created or stored.
AGEWARDEN is designed for websites and platforms that need to comply with age verification regulations from US states, the UK, the EU, and Australia. These regulators now require more than a self-declaration checkbox. The tool is ideal for content platforms, online services, gaming platforms, social media, retail sites with age-restricted products, and any website that needs to verify user age without collecting sensitive personal data.
The privacy-first approach addresses major concerns with other verification methods. ID uploads require users to hand government documents to websites, creating liability when verification vendors are breached. Facial scanning builds infrastructure that could identify users tomorrow and has met immediate backlash. Self-declaration checkboxes are explicitly prohibited by major regulators in the UK, EU, and Australia.
AGEWARDEN pricing
Pricing model: Freemium
Ten cents ($0.10) per verification at standard volume, dropping to one cent ($0.01) at scale. Pricing uses graduated bands where the more you verify, the less each one costs. No setup fees, no minimums, and no seat requirements. A card is required at signup but nothing is charged upfront. The first 100 verifications are free. After that, you receive one bill per month for exactly what you used. Failed runs, retries, and test traffic never count toward charges.
AGEWARDEN pros
- No government ID required from users
- No facial scans or biometric data collected
- Audio never retained - deleted within one hour
- No voiceprints or speaker profiles created
- Under 30 seconds verification time
- Works on any device with a microphone
- No account creation needed for users
- Sandboxed iframe protects voice data from website
- No names, emails, or faces collected
- No data sold or shared with third parties
- Binary result only - no specific age stored
- TLS 1.3 encryption in transit
- Process-level isolation via cross-origin iframe
- First 100 verifications free at signup
- Failed runs, retries, and test traffic never charged
- No setup fees, minimums, or seat requirements
- Graduated pricing bands - cheaper at scale
- Anonymous log only tracks verification happened
AGEWARDEN cons
- Requires microphone on user device
- Only verifies 18+ threshold, not specific age
- Voice-based verification may not work for all users
- Accuracy depends on voice pattern correlation with age
- May be less accurate for teens near age 18 boundary
- No manual review fallback option mentioned
- USD pricing may be expensive for non-US businesses
- Requires internet connection for cloud processing
- Only binary pass/fail - no age confidence score
- Potential bias in voice-to-age correlation models
Frequently asked questions about AGEWARDEN
How does AGEWARDEN determine if someone is over 18?
AGEWARDEN analyzes pitch, cadence, and vocal patterns in a short voice sample that correlate with age. The system examines these acoustic features from a few seconds of speech and returns a binary result: old enough (over 18) or not old enough (under 18). No specific age is estimated - only the threshold determination.
What happens to my voice recording after verification?
Your audio is encrypted, processed, and permanently deleted within one hour. No voiceprints, no speaker profiles, and no biometric templates are created. AGEWARDEN keeps only an anonymous log that a verification happened - no audio and no identifying information are retained.
Do I need to upload my government ID for AGEWARDEN verification?
No. AGEWARDEN requires no government ID, no facial scan, and no account creation. You simply tap a button and speak for a few seconds. This addresses the major privacy concern with ID uploads where users hand government documents to websites.
How long does the entire verification process take?
The interaction takes under thirty seconds total. A visitor taps a button, speaks for a few seconds, and the website receives a decision. This is significantly faster than ID upload processes that require document photos and barcode scanning.
What devices work with AGEWARDEN?
AGEWARDEN works on any device with a microphone, including desktop computers, laptops, tablets, and smartphones. The widget runs inside a sandboxed iframe and the client site never touches the microphone feed directly.
Does AGEWARDEN store any personal information about me?
No. AGEWARDEN does not collect no names, no emails, no faces, and nothing that identifies you is retained. No data is sold or shared. The website receives only a yes or no decision - that is the entire exchange.
How is AGEWARDEN integrated into a website?
AGEWARDEN is a drop-in widget using a simple script implementation. You add a div element with id 'age-verify' and include the loader.js script with your site key (aw_test_ for localhost testing, aw_live_ for production). It uses cross-origin iframe with process-level isolation and site key/secret key authentication with server-side domain validation.
What happens if my voice verification fails or I need to retry?
Failed runs, retries, and test traffic never count toward your charges. You can retry the verification without additional cost if the initial attempt fails. The system is designed to handle these cases without penalizing you.
Is AGEWARDEN compliant with UK, EU, and Australia age verification regulations?
Yes. AGEWARDEN addresses regulatory requirements from US states, the UK, the EU, and Australia that now demand more than a checkbox. Self-declaration checkboxes are explicitly prohibited by major regulators in these regions, and AGEWARDEN provides actual verification without collecting sensitive personal data.
What is the pricing at different volume levels?
Standard pricing is ten cents ($0.10) per verification. At scale, pricing drops to one cent ($0.01) per verification through graduated bands. The more you verify, the less each one costs. The first 100 verifications are free, and you only pay for what you use with one monthly bill.