We can say without any doubt that Instagram has been at the center of focus in terms of scrutiny over failing to keep a track of its users’ age on the platform.
We’ve seen security experts and various surveillance organizations slam the application for not doing enough and letting younger audiences make profiles without a check and balance system.
And that’s when we saw Instagram take on the lead to develop a new age verification program in America. This was launched during the earlier part of this year. And many did appreciate the bold move but hoped an expansion would be lined up soon to other nations.
Now, it appears such users’ prayers have been answered as Instagram is expanding the age verification feature to different countries. Hence, anyone that claims to be 18 and above must be evaluated further to ensure they’re not lying.
The program reportedly makes use of tools and techniques that make such authentication possible. This includes the likes of video selfies that are evaluated through AI-powered systems. And the first two global markets to which Instagram plans on expanding include India and Brazil.
On average, such countries have nearly 400 million users that are active on the platform each month and so it makes sense why they were targeted first.
Instagram confirmed the news recently through an updated blog post. It says that the new program for age confirmation would be further expanding across the United Kingdom and European Union by this year’s end.
Any user that wants to have their age verified would need to do so through an ID. There is a whole list of documents provided by the app that talks about what can be accepted and what cannot.
After you put up a video of yourself, the program’s AI technology will determine who is 18 and who is not. And this is all thanks to Instagram’s new collaboration with a company in the UK called Yoti.
A set of instructions are put on the front of the screen for users to follow so that the video selfies are in line with the platform’s requirements. Remember, this is sensitive technology so every detail counts here. Once the whole process for age verification is done, any data is deleted that was shared with the system.
Yoti has been a leader in this regard. Many other apps on social media have been using it to estimate age and verify it too. Remember, a lot of the app’s users might not even have the right ID that’s accepted by the app.
Previously, the feature called Social Vouching was used to determine and verify users’ age as an experiment. This was based on a user requesting other mutual followers that were 18 and above to vouch for their respective ages. There were a lot of chances of error and inaccuracies so it makes sense why Instagram shunned the idea.
The launch of this feature comes at a time when the app is facing great criticism across the board for letting users as young as 13 and above use the platform. They’ve been called out for just failing to do anything that would put an end to young people viewing harmful content.
Meanwhile, apps like Twitter are also resorting to age verification. But they’re doing this by forcing users to add their birthdates on their profiles.
Instagram claims that it is currently utilizing age data so that restrictions are put on certain types of content for teenagers of a younger age group.
Similarly, anyone under the age of 16 would be having their account limited as private by default.
Read next: Instagram Reels Provide Superior Engagement and Reach for Brands According to This Report
We’ve seen security experts and various surveillance organizations slam the application for not doing enough and letting younger audiences make profiles without a check and balance system.
And that’s when we saw Instagram take on the lead to develop a new age verification program in America. This was launched during the earlier part of this year. And many did appreciate the bold move but hoped an expansion would be lined up soon to other nations.
Now, it appears such users’ prayers have been answered as Instagram is expanding the age verification feature to different countries. Hence, anyone that claims to be 18 and above must be evaluated further to ensure they’re not lying.
The program reportedly makes use of tools and techniques that make such authentication possible. This includes the likes of video selfies that are evaluated through AI-powered systems. And the first two global markets to which Instagram plans on expanding include India and Brazil.
On average, such countries have nearly 400 million users that are active on the platform each month and so it makes sense why they were targeted first.
Instagram confirmed the news recently through an updated blog post. It says that the new program for age confirmation would be further expanding across the United Kingdom and European Union by this year’s end.
Any user that wants to have their age verified would need to do so through an ID. There is a whole list of documents provided by the app that talks about what can be accepted and what cannot.
After you put up a video of yourself, the program’s AI technology will determine who is 18 and who is not. And this is all thanks to Instagram’s new collaboration with a company in the UK called Yoti.
A set of instructions are put on the front of the screen for users to follow so that the video selfies are in line with the platform’s requirements. Remember, this is sensitive technology so every detail counts here. Once the whole process for age verification is done, any data is deleted that was shared with the system.
Yoti has been a leader in this regard. Many other apps on social media have been using it to estimate age and verify it too. Remember, a lot of the app’s users might not even have the right ID that’s accepted by the app.
Previously, the feature called Social Vouching was used to determine and verify users’ age as an experiment. This was based on a user requesting other mutual followers that were 18 and above to vouch for their respective ages. There were a lot of chances of error and inaccuracies so it makes sense why Instagram shunned the idea.
The launch of this feature comes at a time when the app is facing great criticism across the board for letting users as young as 13 and above use the platform. They’ve been called out for just failing to do anything that would put an end to young people viewing harmful content.
Meanwhile, apps like Twitter are also resorting to age verification. But they’re doing this by forcing users to add their birthdates on their profiles.
Instagram claims that it is currently utilizing age data so that restrictions are put on certain types of content for teenagers of a younger age group.
Similarly, anyone under the age of 16 would be having their account limited as private by default.
Read next: Instagram Reels Provide Superior Engagement and Reach for Brands According to This Report
