photo sharing platform Instagram announced this Thursday that it has begun testing a vehicle. artificial intelligence (AI) To verify the age of its users in the United States by face scan.

Lawmakers around the world are saying that the social networking service owned by technology giant Meta, protect the young adult content and violation of your privacy.

According to technology companies, this problem is not easily solved, but it can be solved with technology. wider technological changes. Among them, the linking of birth dates to a person’s cell phone.

Meta announced that new verification tools are being trialled for anyone trying to change their age on the platform. Also includes: record selfie video or ask your friends to verify their age.

“We test this to ensure that teens and adults have the right experience for their age group,” Meta said. Said.

Video selfies will be sent to: British firm Yoti. The company, which will cooperate with Instagram, has developed a face scanning tool that can calculate the age of people under the age of 20. Technology has a 1.5-year margin of error.

However, Yoti’s own data shows that the agent is not that effective at verifying its age. women and girls and dark skinned people.

Both Yoti and Meta said that selfies will be deleted after verification.

it’s not your job

In 2021, Instagram boss Adam Mosseri told US lawmakers they didn’t think it was Instagram’s business. Verify users age. “I think it would be much more effective to verify ages at the device level,” he said.

Instagram was rocked last year by the statements of whistleblower Frances Haugen. The woman claimed that the company executives knew that the platform was like that. can harm mental health young people, especially young girls. Since then, they have implemented various features aimed at keeping young users.