Kalshi Co-founder and CEO Tarek Mansour said on Wednesday (15 April) that the company was introducing new measures, including a “portal for parents”, to ensure that children could not access the prediction markets platform.
Mansour made the revelations when addressing the Semafor World Economy Summit in Washington DC, where he outlined different modifications to the platform intended to tighten age verification and controls.
According to Mansour, the measures seek to resolve a recurring issue where minors use other people’s identities to circumvent blocks on underage users.
He disclosed that Kalshi was developing a special parent portal, where even those who do not have an account can input their identification details to verify whether their identity has been compromised.
Mansour explained: “We are launching a portal for parents to basically submit their identification, even if they don’t want to be users of Kalshi, to see if someone is using it. Because then they can see if their children are using their ID and police it.”
The portal is intended to allow parents to track any potential misuse and take preventive action. Additionally, he pointed out that the portal would be able to identify whether any account had been created or operated by the parents’ identification data.
The initiative reflects a broader industry effort to strengthen compliance mechanisms as prediction markets expand their reach among retail users.
Kalshi declined to provide additional details about these mechanisms when contacted by NEXTPredict.io.
AI to assist onboarding process
Kalshi also plans to deploy artificial intelligence tools that compare user selfies with submitted identification documents.
Mansour said the system is designed to detect discrepancies between the account holder and the individual appearing in verification images.
The technology aims to identify cases where a younger person may be attempting to use an older individual’s credentials, adding another layer of scrutiny to account creation and maintenance.
The company is further developing features that extend oversight beyond individual users.
According to Mansour, Kalshi will be offering additional features for creating family accounts, where family members and friends will be able to observe each other’s activities within the platform.
In turn, users will monitor each other, which means there will be joint responsibility and an ability to report about suspicious behaviour.
“How do we kind of create a sort of accountability structure amongst friends and families for people to be like, ‘Hey, you might be doing a little too much here,’” Mansour asked.
“We want this to be a tool for good, not a tool for excessive behaviours.”
Overall, according to Mansour, this is one of several measures taken to ensure that the platform remains functional and continues to be used appropriately.
There remains a responsibility on operators to provide convenient access together with reliable mechanisms for control.
Kalshi operates under US regulations and provides event-based agreements, which depend on real-life outcomes. As the market expands, firms need to demonstrate excellent user protection, particularly in terms of age verification and safe usage.
According to Mansour, the new enhancements represent a continuation of existing processes.