VeriSign Teams with AOL for “Safe Chat Room”

VeriSign, Inc. (www.verisign.com) and America Online will demonstrate the first "safe chat room" for kids and teens that uses authentication technology to verify a child's age.

Stratton Sclavos, VeriSign chairman and CEO, will showcase this capability - undertaken in coordination with i-SAFE, a non-profit foundation created to educate students about safe online behavior - during a keynote address later today at Digital ID World 2004 in Denver, CO.

"The Internet is providing a foundation for a dramatic transformation of commerce, communications and society," said Stratton Sclavos, Chairman and CEO, VeriSign.

The companies intend to work together to expand the use of this technology through schools and other youth and family-oriented venues.

"AOL has always been a leader in protecting children and families online," said David Gang, Executive Vice President, AOL Products. "Our partnership with VeriSign and the demonstration today with iSAFE offer examples of how we plan to use new technologies to continue to protect our members, secure their communications, and keep their identities safe from hackers and predators."

VeriSign Unified Authentication consists of a comprehensive set of software and services that provide a single integrated platform for provisioning and managing all types of two-factor authentication credentials, including tokens and smartcards.

By integrating with a service provider's or enterprise's existing directory and identity management architecture and leveraging VeriSign's highly-scalable validation infrastructure, VeriSign Unified Authentication dramatically reduces the complexity and cost of two-factor authentication.