Introducing a new way to verify your age on Instagram | Tech Reddy

Update on October 13, 2022 at 5:00 AM PT:

Starting today, we are expanding this test to other countries including India and Brazil. We plan to expand to the UK and EU before the end of the year. We are also removing Social Verification as an option to verify numbers from the test to make it even better.

Originally published on June 23, 2022 at 3:00 AM PT:

Starting today, we’re testing new options for people on Instagram to verify their age, starting with people in the US. If someone tries to edit their birthday on Instagram from under 18 to 18 or older, we ask them to verify their age using one of three options: send their ID, record a personal video, or ask your friends to verify their age. We are testing this to make sure it is suitable for both young and old for their age. We are also working with Yoti, a company that specializes in verifying online numbers, to help protect people’s privacy.

In 2019, we started asking people provide their number when signing up for Instagram. Since then, we have made arrangements. By understanding people’s age we can provide experiences that are relevant to different age groups, especially young people.

We require people to be at least 13 years old to sign up for Instagram. In some countries, our minimum age is higher. When we know someone is a teenager (13-17), we provide them with age-appropriate experiences such as defaulting them into separate accounts, blocking unwanted contact from adults they don’t know and limit the choices that marketers give them with ads. .

New Way of Testing to Verify Numbers

In addition to sending a person their ID, we are testing two new ways to verify a person’s age:

1. Self Video: You can choose to upload a self video to verify your resume. If you choose this option, you will see instructions on your screen to guide you. After you take a video selfie, we share the image with Yoti, nothing else. Yoti’s technology estimates your age based on your face shape and features that approximate us. Meta and Yoti delete the image. Technology cannot know your identity – just your age.
2. Social Verification: This option allows you to ask fans to confirm your age. The applicant must be 18 years of age, must not be authorized for anyone else at that time, and must meet other protections we have in place. The three people you choose to vouch for you will receive a request to confirm your resume and respond within three days.

You can still upload your ID to verify your age form of identification such as a driver’s license or ID card. We use your ID to verify your age and help keep our community safe. Your ID is saved on our servers and deleted within 30 days.

We worked with the youth of the world, privacy and security expert to inform our approach. You can learn more about these three options and how to set them up.

Work with Yoti

We are working together Yoti, a company that offers a privacy-preserving way to verify numbers. Yoti is certified because of Annual Certificate Program and is the leading provider of age verification for many industries worldwide including Social media, gaming and commerce are bound. Professionals and government organizations in youth and private, including German director KJM, Yoti has been recognized by the public for their approach and expertise in artificial intelligence (AI).

Yoti says he trains his data sets based on the anonymous photos of various people from all over the world who expressly consented to Yoti’s use of their data and asked Yoti to delete their data at any time. For persons under the age of 13, Yoti collects data using special data collection practices for which parents or guardians have obtained express consent.

Using AI to know people’s ages

In addition to testing the new menu of options to verify people’s ages, we also use AI to know if someone is young or old. AI will help us prevent teenagers from joining Facebook Dating, adults from messaging teens and help teens get limited advertising content, for example. Our goal is to expand the use of this technology throughout our technology. To learn more about how our technology works, and the advancements we’re making in artificial intelligence, you can review our AI blog post.

Our Approach to Privacy

The information provided in each profile verification section is used to verify your profile and will not be visible on your profile, to your friends or to other people on Instagram. If you choose to upload a personal video to verify your resume, Meta and Yoti deleted it once Your age has been confirmed. Your video will not be used for anything other than verifying your profile. If you choose to provide an ID, a copy of your ID will be sent to us and will be encrypted and securely stored.

Knowing someone’s profile online is a difficult, industry-wide challenge. We want to work with others in our industry, and with governments, to set clear standards for online age verification. Many people, such as young people, do not have access to forms of ID that make it easy to verify their age. As an industry, we need to explore new ways to approach the dilemma of verifying someone’s age without ID.

We continue to believe that an effective way to address this problem is through hardware and app stores that provide apps to all ages, allowing young people to have age-appropriate experiences across the ages. every app they use. In the absence of industry standards and regulations for proper online age verification, we have invested in a set of technologies that are more appropriate and offer more options to verify age and protect your identity. privacy of people using our technology.