The Future Identity Festival brings together innovation leaders from businesses in financial services, retail, entertainment, gaming, education, government and other key verticals, to discuss the future of digital identity, fraud and risk.

At the most recent edition, co-located with FTT Mutuals and the Fintech Talents Festival, we caught up with Agnes Evrard, Director of Trust and Safety at Education Technology company, Brainly. Agnes explains that Brainly’s customers are young students, who utilise the platform to ask their peers and AI-powered tutors for help with their homework and learning.

Working with younger generations presents some unique challenges when it comes to identity and online safety. “Knowing who we let into the site is very important,” Agnes explains. “Our user base mostly do ‘self-declaration’ because there is not yet a real form of digital identity for under 18s.”

This gap in documentation together with clear privacy imperatives makes the process of verifying young people online very challenging. What’s more, Agnes explains, the digital competence of Brainly’s demographic presents its own pressures. “Gen Z is extremely tech savvy,” she says, “they know how to circumvent a lot of the normal frictions which might be put in place.” A careful balance is needed to ensure the right measures are implemented.

Watch the full interview below to hear more about how Brainly are working to both keep their users safe and protect their business.

Registration is now open for our first event of 2024 – Future Identity Finance – join 500+ attendees at etc. venues St. Paul’s, London, to explore how innovation, regulation and customer expectations are changing how we identify ourselves to access financial services.