Under pressure from regulators in the United States and its negative impact on teens, Instagram is experimenting with new ways to verify the age of teens signing up on the platform.
One of them is the selfie video that uses artificial intelligence for age estimation based on facial expressions, which is starting to be tested in the USA.
In most countries, users must be at least 13 years old to create a profile on the social network, but it is common for children under this age to access Instagram without parental supervision.
Adults can confirm the age of teens on Instagram
Statements made last year by former Facebook executive Frances Haugen stated that Meta, the parent of both sites, knew and even increased the risks of the photo platform for girls with body image issues.
According to the model under test, there will be three options for new profiles or those who update their date of birth: send a photo of the ID, take a selfie video, or ask three adults over the age of 18 to verify the news. age.
“We’re testing this to ensure that teens and adults have the right experience for their age group,” the platform said in a statement. And detailed customization for underage users:
“When we know someone is a teenager (13-17), we provide them with age-appropriate experiences, such as standardizing on private accounts, preventing unwanted communications from adults they don’t know, and limiting the options advertisers have to reach them with ads.”
The social network has partnered with British digital identity company Yoti, which uses artificial intelligence to calculate users’ age based on facial features and shares the estimate with Meta. Both companies claim that the images will be deleted after verification.
With the social proof method, young users will be able to nominate three adults to verify their age within three days:
“The person who approves must be at least 18 years old, not liable to anyone else at the time, and will have to comply with any other measures in place.”
Internally, Instagram uses artificial intelligence to understand whether a user is a teenager or an adult.
“AI is helping teens to Facebook Dating (a Tinder-like feature), preventing adults from messaging teens, and teens getting restricted ad content,” the company said.
The social network also emphasized that the information provided in each age verification option is used only to confirm the age and will not be visible on the profile, friends or other people on Instagram.
Meta’s platform said the tests are a way to “discover new ways to approach the dilemma of verifying someone’s age” in the virtual world.
“In the absence of industry standards or regulations on how to effectively verify age online, we are investing in a combination of technologies that are fairer, provide more options for verifying age, and protect the privacy of the people who use our technologies.”
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The new tests are just some of the latest measures taken by Instagram to limit the use of the network to young people under the age of 17.
Earlier this month, the platform announced additional tools for parents to control their children’s access to the network, including the option to set usage time limits and view reports on what teens are accessing on Instagram.
The company also wants to prevent over-consumption of the same topics in discovery tabs, and recommends a “pause” when it notices, for example, that younger users are viewing the content of the same hashtag for a long time.
At the same time, the social network is testing a new feature called “Notes” that allows users to post short notes in the “Close friends” tab or as advertisements to mutual followers.
Unlike the “Notes” announced by Twitter, which tests the posting of texts up to 2500 words, the TechCrunch website points out that the one on Instagram will be more like sticker-style notes that disappear within 24 hours.
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According to the tech site, the feature was first discovered by user Ahmed Ghanem, who posted images showing Instagram notes appearing on the app’s direct message screen.
New: #Instagram Testing the new Notes feature, you can only share notes with your close friends list or followers you follow. pic.twitter.com/8bXNHFcVUG
— Ahmed Ghanem (@ahmedghanem) 20 June 2022
The changes should affect not only those who use the social network for leisure, but also those who access it as a news source. Network, along with TikTok, was the fastest growing network for information seekingAccording to the Digital News Report 2022 study.
All this in the context of Meta being the target of research into the mental health risks of youth accessing their social media in the US.
In November, a consortium of eight U.S. states announced that it was launching an investigation into Mark Zuckerberg’s company to find out violations of consumer protection laws by deliberately putting young people at risk.
In a press release, Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson said at the time:
“This becomes imperative when social media platforms treat our children as mere commodities to manipulate connection times longer and extract data. […] involve our investigative authority in accordance with our consumer protection laws.”
The Massachusetts Attorney General followed suit, saying, “Facebook, now Meta, failed to protect youth on its platforms and instead chose to ignore or, in some cases, succumb to known manipulations that pose a real threat to physical and mental health.” – exploiting children for profit.”
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source: Noticias
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