Instagram will test artificial intelligence engine for age verification

Instagram announced this Thursday (23) the start of testing a tool created from artificial intelligence that will confirm the age of its users in the United States.

Meta, which owns the social network, announced that it is testing the new verification tools for anyone who wants to change their age to over 18 on the platform, by recording a video in ‘selfie’ format or asking for age verification for their friends.

Lawmakers around the world demanded that the social networking service protect young people from adult content and invasions of privacy.

According to tech companies, this issue is not easily resolved, but could be addressed with broader technological changes, such as linking birth details to a person’s cell phone.

“We are testing this to ensure that teens and adults have the right experience for their age group,” Meta said.

The video ‘selfies’ will be sent to the British company Yoti, developer of an artificial intelligence tool capable of calculating the age of those under 20 with a margin of 1.5 years, they say.

However, Yoti’s own data suggests the tools are not as effective at verifying the age of girls and women and those with dark skin. Both Yoti and Meta said the selfies will be discarded after verification.

In 2021, Instagram boss Adam Mosseri told American lawmakers he didn’t feel it was Instagram’s job to verify users’ ages. “I think it would be much more effective to verify ages at the device level,” he said.

Instagram was shaken last year after complaints made by Frances Haugen. According to the complainant, the platform’s executives were aware of the possible damage caused by the app to the mental health of young people, in particular teenagers. Since then, the company has implemented several functions aimed at protecting newer users.