Through Dr Rachel O’Connell’s extensive academic background in child protection, which includes authoring the global technical standard on electronic identification and age verification (PAS 1296 Age Checking code of practice), Rachel knew that a lot of the problems that impact children online could be solved if businesses knew the age of their users and could tailor their services accordingly. However, existing solutions were not up to the task because they involved sharing very personal data, placed too much of a burden on businesses or were easy to work around: for example, self-declaration of age and consent. 

 

To solve this, Rachel decided to take a different approach by developing a solution that would both safeguard personal data and provide clear commercial incentives for businesses to adopt it. 

 

Combining her academic background with her experience in working in a startup, having been the fifth person to join the successful social networking platform Bebo after setting up the Cyberspace Research Unit and Internet Safety Centre, Rachel decided to found TrustElevate.