Photo-sharing app Instagram will now ask children to verify their age through a video selfie or ID card.
According to media reports, if a minor user wants to convert his account to an adult account, the user will have to prove his age.
The move is part of Instagram’s ongoing battle to properly identify young people and to keep very young children off the app.
To verify the age, the selfie will first be uploaded to Instagram using British company UT.
UT is a digital identity company that determines age with the help of selfies. The company’s age estimation is 98 to 99 percent accurate. The company evaluates the user’s facial features in video selfies and estimates the age.
Once Instagram and UT verify the user’s age, the uploaded selfie video will be deleted.
While the second method is to upload your ID card photo.
Tara Hopkins, head of public policy at Instagram, a subsidiary of Meta, said the company wants everyone to use Instagram in a way that’s appropriate for their age, which means the company needs to know what’s going on. What is the age of the users? This is one of the challenges of this industry.
