Instagram is using new artificial intelligence (AI) technology to enhance the safety of its most vulnerable users—teens. It will therefore check ages and suspend accounts that don’t meet age requirements. The social media behemoth insists it is just trying to create a safe online hangout for teens. This comes in addition to an effort they kicked off last year to get Teen Accounts.
Since launching with Teen Accounts, more than 54 million teens around the world have signed up for this app-based experience. This platform has built-in protections designed to help ensure that their online interactions are safe. Their statistics show that 97% of users aged 13-15 have been able to keep their accounts working in these safe environments.
Example of Instagram’s AI for determining user age. This serves to protect that teens will be coming to the platform through the correct account type, and increasing Teen Accounts effectiveness. This program is one piece of a larger effort to create a safer digital landscape for teens.
Instagram will soon start alerting parents to the need ensure their kids are giving the right age info online. These notifications will feature tips for how parents can check their teens’ accounts and make sure they’re properly registered. While there are many underlying steps, one of the most important things parents can do is look at their child’s account to see if their actual birthday is listed.
The platform has developed ways to check for suspicious age entries. One of the ways they do this is by tracking down birthday posts that might indicate a user is using a phony adult birthdate. Further, Instagram admits that it has been forced to depend upon user reports to surface accounts that do not accurately represent the age of their account holders.
Meta, Instagram’s parent company, has stressed the need for all companies to pivot with the changing digital world.
“The digital world continues to evolve and we have to evolve with it,” – Meta
Instagram has been working to develop Age Detection technology for a while and is committed to developing technology that is accurate and keeps users safe. The new measures go beyond merely meeting legal requirements. They provide a stronger, safer environment for teens to connect online.
Meta has since rolled out Teen Accounts on Facebook and Messenger, in addition to Instagram. This move continues to take their protections a step further for their younger users on all of its platforms. These accounts have been given strict guardrails on who can reach out to them and what kinds of materials they are allowed to see.
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