What are the new ways to verify age on Instagram?

What are the new ways to verify age on Instagram? Well, in order to provide the users with a more appropriate experience, IG’s team has decided to reinforce their age verification. Being in a globalized society has brought with it a lot of technological advances but at the same time has contributed to cyber insecurity in many aspects. 

For that reason, starting in June, the company will present a strategy in which users won’t able to verify their ages (from under 18 to 18 years or older) without passing any of these three filters: uploading your ID, recording a video selfie or asking mutual friends to do so and verifying your age. The aim is for teenagers and adults to have an age-appropriate experience. In addition, the team has allied with Yoti, a specialized online age verification agency, to ensure people’s privacy.

Testing new ways to verify age

• Video selfie: With this function you will be able to upload a short video selfie. If you select it, you will see some instructions on your screen to do so. Then, Instagram’s team will share your video with Yoti and that is all. Afterwards, Yoti’s technology will be responsible for analyzing your age based on your facial features and deliver the results to IG. Keep in mind that Yoti can’t recognize your identity, only your age.

• Social vouching: Here you can select three of your followers to confirm your age. These people must be at least 18 years old as well and will have to comply with other security measures IG’s team has for them. To do so, you and your mutual followers will have a limit of three days.

• ID’s uploading: You still have the chance to upload your ID to verify your age, just tap on Forms of Identification on your settings. There, you can upload either a driver’s license or an ID card, but it’s important to do so, then Instagram can provide you with good content. And don’t worry, your ID will be stored securely on IG’s servers and will be deleted in 30 days.

Partnering with Yoti

Yoti is the leading provider of age verification for several industries worldwide (including social networks, games and age restricted e-commerce. This company is verified by the Age Check Certification Scheme and offers us privacy-preserving ways to verify age. In addition, privacy experts and governmental organizations endorse Yoti for their approach and expertise in responsible artificial intelligence (AI), so you don’t have to be afraid to trust this company with your data.

Using AI to Understand People’s Ages

IG’s team has taken advantage of AI to keep their users safe. By the way, AI has helped them to solve some problems such as:

• Avoiding teenagers to use Facebook Dating
• Blocking adults from sending messages to teenagers
• Preventing teenagers from receiving restricted ad content

And you can find more examples like these, so if you want to continue learning, please take a look at the team’s blog post detailing this entire project focused on the expansion of this technology from their networks. Finally, it should be clarified that all data collected through any of instagram’s age verification strategies will not be visible to other users or other members of the IG team and will be encrypted and securely stored for a limited time, so it will not be permanently recorded on the network.

Likewise, it is important to recognize the great effort the company is making to keep its community safe as we know that verifying someone’s age online is a complex challenge for the entire industry and Instagram’s innovative initiatives in wanting to partner with organizations backed by government entities as well as its project based on ingenious ways to put all audiences through this filter is simply impressive.