Today, Meta revealed that it had begun testing its Instagram age-verification capabilities in more nations, including Mexico and Canada. In June of last year, the social media platform started experimenting with three new ways for users to prove their age: uploading their ID, making a video selfie, or asking friends who know them to do so. Instagram will ask a user to prove their age with one of the three methods if they tried to change their date of birth from under 18 to 18 or older.

The test was first made available in the United States, then in October, it was also made available in Brazil and Japan. Currently, more nations in Europe, Mexico, Canada, South Korea, Australia, and Japan are testing the age verification tools. In the upcoming months, Meta intends to make the tools accessible on a global scale.

Adapted methods for verification

You can present an ID, such as a passport or a driver’s licence, to prove your age. In this case, Instagram will keep your ID on its servers for 30 days before erasing it. You can use the video selfie option if you don’t have a legitimate ID. For this choice, Instagram has teamed up with London-based digital identity start-up Yoti. Once you upload a video selfie, Yoti receives it and uses specially trained AI to confirm your age. Both businesses erase the data after the verification procedure is over.

The third method of age verification is known as “social vouching,” and it entails asking followers who you have in common to attest to your age. The person providing the vouch must be at least 18 years old and cannot be providing a vouch at the same time for another person. You will be asked to prove your age, and for the three people you choose to vouch for, you will have three days to do so. The people who are vouching for you will have the opportunity to indicate your age range, such as under 13, 13–17, 18–20, 21 or older, or I’m not sure. Your age verification will only be accepted if all three of them select the same choice.

According to Meta, since it began testing age verification on Instagram last year, its tests have shown that it was able to thwart 96% of the teenagers who tried to change their birthdays on Instagram from under 18 to 18 or over.

To prevent users under the age of 13 from signing up for the app, Instagram started requesting new users to enter their birthdates in 2019. The social network makes submitting one’s birthdate a requirement starting in 2021. The same year, it introduced teen-friendly restrictions like the ability to block DMs from unauthorised adults and make accounts private by default for users under the age of 16.