Meta introduced new privacy tools for teens on Facebook and Instagram this month to safeguard children from adults looking to take advantage of them. Facebook Dating in the US will no longer be available to users under the age of 18 according to a new set of tools introduced by the social media giant. To ensure that only adults are utilising its dating service, the company has introduced new measures for age verification.
In order to “help protect people’s privacy and give them with several options to select from to verify their age,” Meta has partnered with online age-verification startup Yuti. Facebook Dating will ask a user to confirm their age if it thinks they might be a youngster trying to access the service. There will be two ways for users to confirm their age.
Users can record a video selfie, and the business will share a still from the video selfie with Yuti, as stated by Meta. Based on face traits, Yuti’s age verification algorithm calculates age and communicates it with Meta. Whether Yuti determined that you were at least 18 years old will determine whether you had access to Facebook Dating. It’s important to note that Yuti’s age-verification technology can’t determine who you are.
Users on Facebook Dating have several options for proving their age. For whatever reason, someone can upload an ID to prove their age if they are uncomfortable sharing a video selfie. The copy of your ID “will be encrypted and stored securely, and won’t be visible on your Facebook profile or to other individuals on the app,” according to the company’s official blog post. Users are in charge of deciding how long their IDs are kept after successful verification.
Meta will use age verification methods on multiple occasions. The social media behemoth began experimenting with these technologies on Instagram, and it has had success. The tech firm claims that it was successful in preventing 96 percent of teenagers from lying about their age on Facebook Dating.
Although Facebook Dating is now only available in the United States, Meta promises to “extend its age-detection technologies and verification capabilities to other countries worldwide.”
