John Paul M. Joaquin Tech 06.23.2022 10:Jun AM EDT

Instagram Wants To Scan Your Face To Verify Your Age — Here’s What You Need To Know

Photo : Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash

Instagram users with baby faces might not be able to use Instagram in the future.

The popular social media company is reportedly testing new methods for users to verify their age, such as using an AI tool that scans users' faces to verify their age, per The Verge.

Instagram is also testing other features that could improve users' experiences on its platform, like a full-screen feed.

Instagram Face Scan Feature Test Facts

Instagram is allegedly testing an AI tool that can estimate a person's age before allowing someone to sign up for an account on its platform by scanning their face from a video selfie.

To date, only those at least 13 years old can sign up for an Instagram account. Those who change their age from under 18 to 18 and over are prompted to provide identification; Instagram will either ask a person's friends for their age or have the user undergo AI age verification, per Tech Crunch.

Yoti mentioned that for the age verification process to start, Instagram will ask interested users to record a video selfie of themselves with their faces clearly seen. Next, the interested user will send the video selfie to Instagram, which will then send the video to Yoti, a third-party company, to verify their age.

Yoti, a company that develops facial scanning technology for identity verification processes, will then have the video selfie analyzed by AI programmed to estimate age.

Once that's done, Yoti will send their AI's findings to Meta, which either confirms or denies an interested user's age.

Yoti stated in its announcement its AI is trained to spot patterns in numbers, and as such, it learns "this pattern is what 16 year olds usually look like."

Once Yoti sends its findings to Meta, both companies will delete the video selfie, securing the interested user's identity.

Effectivity of Yoti's AI

Yoti also claims that its age estimation technology has performed over 500 million checks worldwide and that its AI is being used by "a range of business and industries" worldwide, which includes companies like Meta, the NHS, and Virgin Games.

The company's technology has also been approved for use by the UK government and German digital regulators, namely the German Association for Voluntary Self-Regulation of Digital Media Service Providers.

Those who wish to try out Yoti's age verification AI can do so through an online demo, with the company promising that it won't retain any data shared by those who wish to try it.

However, based on the data provided by Yoti, its AI is less accurate for female faces and those with darker skin, and estimates for people under 24 can be inaccurate by up to 2.5 years.

Fortunately, the AI's accuracy improves when it is making a broad guess about a user's age.

An operational acceptance test conducted on Yoti's age verification AI by a third-party non-profit found that Yoti's AI was 98.89% reliable at guessing whether or not someone who is actually 18 years is over or under 25.