Instagram has a massive focus on its age verification tool. It is one of the top AI features that users will experience with the application, as it will determine if their experience would be available in the app. There were previous disputes regarding Instagram for Teens and the age requirement it needs for access, and the AI will be a bridge to give users access or prevent them from using Instagram.
Instagram's Age Verification Tool: Is it Accurate?
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Last week, Instagram announced via its blog post that it is testing a new age verification AI that would help the company determine the correct age of a user trying to access the app for their usage. That announcement refers to the recent addition to its tests, where the company takes on different tools for verifying the age of its users.
Users would have to take a video selfie for verification, and the company will send its copies to a partner company called Yoti. According to CNN, the AI tool is helpful and has a massive database that stores information from the public to verify age.
However, it is accurate for caucasian or white people only, as it faces a problem for people of color and other races. Nevertheless, Yoti said that its database is expanding to identify people, regardless of race or skin color, correctly.
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Instagram Uses Yoti's AI for Age Tests
Yoti is the partner of Instagram for this AI age test, and what users submit to the social media for verification is sent over to the verification company for analysis. Yoti's white paper talked about its massive library of human faces in different age groups, and its AI would help classify a person's age depending on the video selfie sent.
CNN's test showed that while the group's majority passed at their correct ages, a 30-year-old person's result says they are only in the 17-year-old age group.
Instagram and its Age Verification
Meta faces many disputes regarding Instagram's usage in the present and a previous incident regarding a whistleblower that leaked several reports and information from the company. Frances Haugen addressed many things that put Meta in the spotlight, and one of her testimonies is how Instagram affects teenagers' health which the company swept under the rug.
Since then, there were several propositions from Meta, which talked about the "Instagram for Kids" venture that would bring an experience for the young ones to use the media sharing application. This version of the famous social media application aims to bring a platform for children that is safe to use, and it would ensure that all users would avoid exploitation.
However, Instagram for Kids faced petitions from groups and concerned citizens regarding its potential dangers and did not push through with development.
Instagram found a way to regulate its interactions, and it is through its original plan of only allowing adolescents who are in their 13 years of age to enter the app for its access. Here, one of the company's gatekeepers is an AI verification tool that will help it determine those eligible to use the application. Still, it may not be entirely accurate as it promises.
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Written by Isaiah Richard
