Knowing that children may be exposed to inaccurate information, sexist, self-harming sites or material aimed at adults at any time without any oversight, many social media giants have begun working to provide age-appropriate access to their platforms experience.
In addition to defaulting the accounts of underage users to privacy, Instagram has now announced that it is adding more ways to verify age on its social media app to reduce the chance of inappropriate media exposure. Currently, users in the U.S. need to verify their age by uploading an ID card, recording a Video Selfie, or through Social Vouching – which allows users to ask mutual friends to verify their age and prevent their date of birth from changing Be 18 years old or older.
Commenting on the age verification process without ID, an Instagram spokesperson said:
Knowing someone’s age online is a complex, industry-wide challenge. We hope to work with others in our industry and governments to develop clear standards for online age verification. Proof of identity that makes age verification clear and simple is not always available to many people, such as teenagers. As an industry, we must explore new ways to solve the challenge of verifying someone’s age when they don’t have an ID.
We still believe that an effective solution to this problem is for devices or app stores to provide apps with people’s ages, so that teens are placed in an age-appropriate experience across all the apps they use. In the absence of industry standards or regulations on how to effectively verify age online, we have invested in a combination of technologies that are more equitable, provide more options for verifying age and protect the privacy of those who use our technology .
In addition, Instagram has partnered with Yoti, an online age verification company verified by the Age Check Certification Program, to help ensure people’s privacy. To that end, the company mentions that Meta and Yoti will delete video selfies once the user’s age is confirmed and won’t use them for any other reason. User identities are also encrypted and securely stored, and then deleted within 30 days.
