Meta made the announcement that it has begun testing its Instagram age verification tools in additional nations, including Canada and Mexico. In June of last year, the social media app began testing three new ways for users to verify their age: uploading their identification, taking a video selfie, or asking friends of the same age to confirm their age. The app would ask users to verify their age using one of the three methods if they attempted to change their Instagram date of birth from under 18 to 18 or older.

The test first went live in the United States, and in October, Brazil and Japan followed suit. More nations in Europe, Mexico, Canada, South Korea, Australia, and Japan are currently testing the age verification tools. In the coming months, Meta intends to make the tools available worldwide. You can show an ID, like a passport or driver’s license, to prove your age. Instagram will store your ID on its servers for 30 days before deleting it if you do so. You can take a video selfie if you don’t have a valid ID. For this option, Instagram has partnered with Yoti, a digital identity startup based in London. Yoti uses specially trained artificial intelligence to verify your age after you upload a video selfie. Both businesses delete the data when the verification process is finished.

Social vouching is the third option for age verification. With it, you can ask mutual followers to verify your age. The person vouching must not be vouching for anyone else at the time and must be at least 18 years old. A request to verify your age will be sent to the three people you choose to vouch for you, and they must respond within three days. The people who are vouching for you will have the opportunity to select an age range, such as under 13, 13-17, 18-20, 21 or older, or I’m not sure. In order for your age verification to be approved, all three of them must select the same option.
Instagram starts testing its age verification tools in more countries | TechCrunch
Meta claims that since it first started testing age verification on Instagram last year, it has stopped 96% of teens who tried to change their birthdays on Instagram from under 18 to 18 or older. In an effort to prevent users under the age of 13 from using the app, Instagram began requiring new users to enter their birth date in 2019. The social network mandated that everyone submit their birth date in 2021. It introduced restrictions for teenagers in the same year, such as making accounts private by default for users under the age of 16 and blocking messages from unknown adults.

Conclusion: According to Meta, the platform will require users to verify their age using one of three options if they attempt to change their date of birth (DOB) on Instagram from under the age of 18 to 18 or older:

– Upload their ID
– Take a video selfie
– Ask mutual friends to verify their age

The company has been testing the new verification tool to ensure that adults and teens are participating in the appropriate experience. To further protect people’s privacy, Meta is collaborating with Yoti, a company that specializes in online age verification. In addition, it stated in the blog post that it intends to make age verification tools available in additional nations within the next few months.

In June of this year (2022), Meta began testing a new Instagram feature that requires users to verify their age, starting with US residents. The social media player later extended this test to India and Brazil in October 2022. According to the organization, this will ensure “that youngsters and grown-ups are in the right insight for their age bunch“. It continued, “We also use artificial intelligence (AI) to understand if someone is a teen or an adult. We also test the new menu of options to verify people’s ages”.

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