Instagram is starting with video as a means of age verification

Instagram is starting in the US with a way to verify the age of users by making a video. An algorithm then tries to estimate the age. Also, the user can choose that the software asks contacts to verify age.

With that, there are three ways to verify an age in the US, says Instagram. In addition to uploading an ID such as a driver’s license or passport, this can be done by asking contacts to verify age and by uploading a video. The latter is in collaboration with the company Yoti. It has trained its algorithm on a dataset of photos all over the world, where all data is anonymized except for the age.

The age verification occurs when users change their age to over 18 or under 18, says parent company Meta. For now, it only happens in the United States. Instagram allows users from 13 years old, but has restrictions for users between 13 and 17 years old. Instagram says it will remove the video immediately after age verification. A copy of the ID will remain encrypted, the company says.