Meta's (NASDAQ: META) Instagram recently announced that it was planning on coming up with new ways to verify the ages of users in the United States, including AI-read face scans.
Since both legal authorities and parents have begun to voice concerns regarding this issue, Instagram has introduced a new way to improve age verification. One way that Instagram has considered verifying age is by asking users to upload self portraits, take videos of themselves, or request confirmation of the users' ages from fellow friends.
One method for age verification that Instagram is considering is the usage of an AI (artificial intelligence) tool that could be implemented by a third party (Yoti). This AI tool verifies age through scanning photos of the face.
Artificial intelligence age verification, which has been most popularly utilized in places like the United Kingdom or Germany, uses facial signals and detection measures in order to approximate the general age of users.
Various data has been accumulated in order to pinpoint the accuracy rates of the AI system, Yoti. Though the tool has proven to yield generally accurate assessments, it can also be quite unreliable at guessing users' ages. Back in 2020, however, the Yoti tool had a 98.89% accuracy rate when it came to estimating users aged between 18 and 25.
Another option that Instagram will be introducing is confirmation through mutual friends of the users. If ages of users need to be verified, Instagram requests for three mutual followers who are over age 18 to do so, and they will have three days to reply.
The two primary purposes of this new age verification system is to address situations of adults who have mistakenly signed up as underage teens and to deal with cases in which teenagers are attempting to get around Instagram's age restrictions.
Although the introduction of artificial intelligence for purposes of age verification can potentially be an appropriate safety measure, critics of this feature see the potential harm that it can cause.
"It's problematic because there are a lot of known biases with trying to identify by things like age or gender," and Daragh Murray, senior lecturer at University of Essex's law school. "You're essentially looking at a stereotype and people just differ so much."
But Instagram still insists that it would like to try out the feature, in spite of any rising challenges.
"Understanding someone's age online is a complex, industry-wide challenge. We want to work with others in our industry, and with governments, to set clear standards for age verification online," Meta said in a press release. "Many people, such as teens, don't always have access to the forms of ID that make age verification clear and simple. As an industry, we have to explore novel ways to approach the dilemma of verifying someone's age when they don't have an ID."