Instagram tests AI tool for age verification

Instagram is testing new options for users to verify their age.

The photo-sharing social media platform began asking people to provide their age in 2019. Knowing people's age allows Instagram to provide appropriate experiences to different age groups, for example, to prevent teens from unwanted contact from adults. Users must be at least 13 years old to sign up for Instagram.

"If someone attempts to edit their date of birth on Instagram from under the age of 18 to 18 or over, we'll require them to verify their age using one of three options: upload their ID, record a video selfie or ask mutual friends to verify their age," Instagram said on a blog post.

It is also partnering with online age verification company Yoti to help “ensure people's privacy.”

"After you take a video selfie, we share the image with Yoti, and nothing else. Yoti's technology estimates your age based on your facial features and shares that estimate with us. Meta and Yoti then delete the image. The technology cannot recognize your identity – just your age," Instagram assured.

Yoti trains its dataset on “anonymous images of diverse people from around the world who have transparently allowed Yoti to use their data.”

Instagram is also introducing a social vouching concept. Users can select three people to vouch for them, and the person vouching must be at least 18 years old.