Instagram live testing an AI tool that determines user's age by scanning their face
Users can also ask others to vouch for their age or upload an identification card
Instagram is currently experimenting with new ways to verify users' ages on the platform.
In addition to providing an ID, the social-media network says people can now use technology that will verify their age based on a video selfie and asking others to vouch for their age.
Up until this point, the minimum age requirement for creating an Instagram account has been set at 13 years old.
Currently, Instagram only requires users to verify their age when teenagers attempt to change their date of birth, to make it seem they are 18 or older. Users have the option of uploading pictures of various identification cards in order to have their ages confirmed.
However, beginning today, users in the United States will have two additional options: 'social vouching' and AI age estimation.
Instagram has announced that it is collaborating with Yoti, a firm that specialises in developing methods of age verification that do not compromise users' privacy.
Users who opt to verify their age by uploading a video selfie will have instructions on their screens on how to take the selfie and upload it.
After the user has posted the video, Instagram will share the picture with Yoti, which will utilise the information to estimate the person's age based on their facial features.
According to Instagram, the technology cannot determine the identity of the user, and the photograph will be deleted by Meta and Yoti once an age estimate has been performed.
In addition to the video selfie feature, Instagram has also introduced a social vouching option for age verification. Users may use this feature by asking mutual followers to confirm how old they are.
The person vouching has to fulfil Instagram's other requirements, such as being at least 18 years old and not vouching for anybody else at the time.
A request to validate the user's age will be sent to three persons that the user chooses to vouch for them, and those people will have three days to reply to the request.
Users also have the option to verify their identity using documents such as a driver's licence or an identification card.
Instagram claims that the move is part of a larger effort to verify that its users are at least the required minimum age of 13 and to ensure that "teens and adults are in the right experience for their age group."
Yoti, which Instagram has partnered with, is a well-known player in online age and ID verification, and its technology has been certified for use by both the government of the United Kingdom and German digital regulators.
The firm claims that the technology it uses to determine an individual's age is based on a "neural network", which they have trained to be able to determine an individual's age via the use of a process known as "machine learning."
However, the data shows that Yoti's system is less accurate when applied to female faces and those of persons with darker complexion. Its projections might be inaccurate by up to 2.5 years for those less than 24 years old.
Yoti's is not the only AI-powered tool that Instagram utilises to make an educated guess as to the ages of its users.
According to the Verge, the platform has been employing automated systems since 2019 to look for users who are underage.
Instagram's decision to use facial scanning represents a shift from the practises of some other tech firms.
In response to concerns about stereotyping, discrimination, or unfair denial of services, Microsoft said on Tuesday that it will cease offering its customers face analysis tools that "purport to infer" emotional states and identification factors like age or gender.