Epic Games and SuperAwesome Offer Free Parent Verification for all Developers

Last September, SuperAwesome joined the Epic Games family and since then we’ve been working together closely to expand our services to make the Internet safer for kids.

We know that the metaverse will be a place where people of varying ages will meet, play games and take part in events just like they do in the physical world, so it’s important that developers have tools to ensure they are able to deliver audience-appropriate experiences that are compliant with relevant privacy laws. But for hundreds of thousands of developers around the world, it remains prohibitively expensive to do the right and compliant thing for young audiences - especially when it comes to verifying the identity of parents and guardians.

We want to help address that.

This is why starting today we are making Kids Web Services (KWS) parent verification free for all developers globally via Epic Online Services. KWS enables developers to verify the identity of parents or guardians when granting their children permission to use features that collect personal information. KWS already powers parent verification for some of the biggest games in the world and we also recently implemented KWS parent verification into the Epic Games account creation process. 

“The metaverse will be made up of many types of experiences and will not be controlled by any one company,” said Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games. “This will require all of us who are building toward this future to create experiences that are not only interoperable but also take the safety of our audiences into account, no matter their age. By making KWS parent verification free we hope to enable more developers to create safer digital experiences, while empowering parents to make the choices that are right for their families.”

Making KWS parent verification free will also provide a better user experience for both parents and players. Once a parent is verified using KWS and part of SuperAwesome’s network of verified parents/guardians called the “ParentGraph”, they never need to provide their verification details again for any other service that uses KWS technology. This also minimizes personal data processing, since the parent or guardian is only providing their verification details once and SuperAwesome just retains the data necessary to enable the ParentGraph.

“Regulators around the world have led the charge by introducing laws intended to make the internet safer for kids like COPPA in the US, the Children’s Code in the UK and GDPR-K in Europe,” added Dylan Collins, founder of SuperAwesome. “We share this vision and want to make compliance an accessible reality for developers and creators of all sizes. Free parent verification is a critical industry step to make it easier for everyone to say yes to kid-safe experiences.”

We know that this is only a first step, and our teams are hard at work to provide more kidtech tools to make compliance easier and more affordable for developers and creators around the world. Check out the SuperAwesome blog post and the KWS Developer Portal landing page for more information!