Page 12 - aruba-today-20220624

A12 technology
Friday 24 June 2022

Instagram tests using AI, other tools for

age verification

By BARBARA ORTUTAY and
MATT O'BRIEN
AP Technology Writers
Instagram is testing new
ways to verify the age of
people using its service,
including a face-scanning
artificial intelligence tool,
having mutual friends verify
their age or uploading an
ID.
But the tools won't be used,
at least not yet, to block
children from the popular
photo and video-sharing
app. The current test only This Friday, Aug. 23, 2019, file photo shows the Instagram app
involves verifying that a icon on the screen of a mobile device in New York.
user is 18 or older. Associated Press
The use of face-scanning have additional restrictions it."
AI, especially on teenag- on their accounts — for in- Yoti is one of several bio-
ers, raised some alarm stance, adults they are not metric companies capi-
bells Thursday, given the connected to can't send talizing on a push in the
checkered history of Insta- them messages — until United Kingdom and Eu-
gram parent Meta when they turn 18. rope for stronger age
it comes to protecting us- The use of uploaded IDs is verification technology to
ers' privacy. Meta stressed not new, but the other two stop kids from accessing
that the technology used options are. "We are giving pornography, dating apps
to verify people's age can- people a variety of options and other internet content
not recognize one's identity to verify their age and see- meant for adults -- not to
— only age. Once the age ing what works best," said mention bottles of alcohol
verification is complete, Erica Finkle, Meta's director and other off-limits items at
Meta said it and Yoti, the of data governance and physical stores.
AI contractor it partnered public policy. Yoti has been working with
with to conduct the scans, To use the face-scanning several big U.K. supermar-
will delete the video. option, a user has to up- kets on face-scanning
Meta, which owns Face- load a video selfie. That cameras at self-check-out
book as well as Instagram, video is then sent to Yoti, a counters. It has also started
said that beginning on London-based startup that verifying the age of users of
Thursday, if someone tries uses people's facial fea- the youth-oriented French
to edit their date of birth tures to estimate their age. video chatroom app Yubo.
on Instagram from under Finkle said Meta isn't yet try- While Instagram is likely
the age of 18 to 18 or over, ing to pinpoint under-13s to follow through with its
they will be required to ver- using the technology be- promise to delete an ap-
ify their age using one of cause it doesn't keep data plicant's facial imagery
these methods. on that age group — which and not try to use it to rec-
Meta continues to face would be needed to prop- ognize individual faces,
questions about the nega- erly train the AI system. But the normalization of face-
tive effects of its products, if Yoti does predict a user scanning presents other
especially Instagram, on is too young for Instagram, societal concerns, said
some teens. they'll be asked to prove Daragh Murray, a senior
Kids technically have to be their age or have their ac- lecturer at the University of
at least 13 to use Instagram, count removed, she said. Essex's law school. A 2019
similar to other social me- "It doesn't ever recognize, study by a U.S. agency
dia platforms. But some cir- uniquely, anyone," said Ju- found that facial recogni-
cumvent this either by lying lie Dawson, Yoti's chief pol- tion technology often per-
about their age or by hav- icy and regulatory officer. forms unevenly based on
ing a parent do so. Teens "And the image is instantly a person's race, gender or
aged 13 to 17, meanwhile, deleted once we've done age. The National Institute
of Standards and Tech-
nology found higher error
rates for the youngest and
oldest people. There's not
yet such a benchmark for
age-estimating facial anal-
ysis, but Yoti's own pub-
lished analysis of its results
reveals a similar trend, with
slightly higher error rates for
women and people with
darker skin tones.q