Instagram has just announced the development of a feature to define the age of users through a video selfie.
Officially, Instagram is only accessible for people over the age of 13. To achieve this verification, the social network offers several ways in the United States to prove this data, whether through a testimony from friends in common, a photo of the identity card or even… a selfie of you. This novelty aims to protect young users from content on the platform, which can have an impact on mental health in particular.
State-of-the-art age verification in the United States
This is not new, Instagram is limited to a certain age, at least 13 years old. However, it was not difficult to override this restriction since no verification system was in place before. A fact that is no longer relevant, given that the parent company of the social network (Meta) has just announced through a press release partnering with Yoti, an online verification specialist, to verify the age of its users.
In order to achieve its ends, the platform thus announces the establishment of a system offering three age verification methods : taking a video selfie, encouraged by Instagram for its speed; asking three friends to vouch; and finally the publication of an identity document, such as an identity card, a passport or even a driving licence. Once one of these identification methods is used, the social network points out that the verification will take between 20 minutes and 3 days.
Via this new feature, Instagram completes its previous feature aimed at making its platform safer for teenagers: entering your date of birth. As a reminder, this feature allows the social network to display content that is more relevant and/or adapted to the user’s age group. The platform also underlines in its blog post announcing the arrival of the age verification system that the fact of “knowing the age of people allows us to offer appropriate experiences to different age groups, in particular to teenagers”.
Of note, Yoti and Meta clarified that they will directly remove verification data from its age verifications in the case of video selfies. Regarding the use of an identity card, Meta should keep the document uploaded to its servers, but encrypted via a secure space.
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