Over the years, many social media platforms have had to find ways to restrict and engage kids, comply with regulations, and target age-appropriate and relevant content and advertising.
Instagram is currently testing a set of features that would verify users’ age. These features include a face-scanning artificial intelligence tool, having mutual friends (adults) verify their age, or uploading an ID.
The two primary use cases for this new verification system will be adults who have registered as teens by mistake and trying to enter their correct age; and teens who are trying to dodge the platform’s age-appropriate restrictions.
Instagram has made a few changes to those restrictions; kids technically have to be at least 13 years to use Instagram, the option of private accounts is no longer available to users below 18 years, and only adults connected to these accounts can send messages.
Hence, when creating a new account or changing your age, you’ll be prompted to select an age verification method to provide an ID card like a passport or driver’s license, take a video selfie, or ask people who know you.
On Thursday, given the history of Instagram’s parent Meta in protecting users’ privacy, the use of Face-scanning AI, especially on teenagers, raised some alarm bells.
However, Meta has assured that the technology used to verify people’s age cannot recognize their identity — only age. Once the age verification process is complete, Meta said it and Yoti, the AI contractor it partnered with to conduct the scans, will permanently delete the video.
Yoti is a London-based biometric startup company whose goal is to create effective age verification technologies to prevent kids from accessing pornography, dating apps, and other internet content meant for adults.
Yoti has worked with several major U.K. supermarkets on face-scanning counters at self-check-out counters. It has also started verifying the age of new users of the youth-oriented French video chatroom, Yubo.
Surprisingly, Meta’s face-scanning move deviates from what some of its tech competitors are doing. On the other hand, Microsoft said on Tuesday that it would stop providing its users with facial analysis tools that “purport to infer” emotional states and identity attributes such as gender or age, citing concerns about “stereotyping, discrimination, or unfair denial of services.”
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