Instagram To Now Verify Your Age With Selfies; Social Vouching Also In Works

New Delhi: Instagram is now testing new ways to figure out how to perform age verification. The company, in its recent blog post, said that it is testing two new ways to test the Instagram age verification process.

One of the ways is by taking selfies while the other one is through social vouching. Both of these processes are undergoing trials as a result of which, it will take time to reach the masses.

It is expected that both ways will make the verification process quicker, easier and better than the current model.

Instagram's first method is through video selfies and under this process, in-screen instructions will be given to the user to record their video, just like how it's done when setting up a Face ID system on a brand new iPhone. 

The video is shared with Yoti, a company that specializes in age verification. The estimation is based on facial features; once the process is complete, the video is deleted. The process helps the verification process to be completed within a span of 20 minutes.

On the other hand, the second method is the option of social media vouching and under this process, someone else has to vouch for the user's age. 

The person who will be nominated by the user must be over 18 years of age and will not vouch for anyone else at the time. The process will also require three people to vouch for the user's age and they will have to respond within three days of the request being sent.

The process certainly seems more complicated as compared to the current one but it will play a pivotal role in getting accurate age estimates, which eventually helps Instagram to tailor the user experience individually.

As a result, minors posing as 18+ adults will now have to undergo an authentic verification process.

Despite all this, it still remains to be seen how accurate and reliable these new methods will turn out to be in comparison to the existing ones.

It is to be noted that Instagram will continue to have the ID-based age verification process in place.

"We require people to be at least 13 years old to sign up for Instagram. In some countries, our minimum age is higher. When we know if someone is a teen (13-17), we provide them with age-appropriate experiences like defaulting them into private accounts, preventing unwanted contact from adults they don't know and limiting the options advertisers have to reach them with ads," says Instagram.

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