Meta’s latest attempt to comply with age verification requirements in Europe, Brazil and the United States involves deploying AI-based technology to scan the faces of teenage Facebook and Instagram users.
The company says AI analysis will be used to estimate the age of faces but that this does not amount to facial recognition…
Regulators around the world are demanding that social media companies get better at identifying and blocking users under 13. Additionally, adolescents aged 13 to 18 should receive age-appropriate feeds.
The social network is already using AI to try to gather clues about the age of its users.
This includes using AI technology to scan entire profiles for contextual clues – such as birthday celebrations or mentions of school grades – to determine whether an account likely belongs to a minor. We look for these signals in different formats, like posts, comments, bios, and captions, and we continue to expand this technology to other parts of our apps like Instagram Reels, Instagram Live, and Facebook Groups.
Meta says it is now adding visual analysis of users’ faces.
This technology allows our AI to scan photos and videos for visual clues about a person’s age that text might miss. We want to be clear: this is not facial recognition. Our AI looks at general themes and visual cues, for example height or bone structure, to estimate a person’s general age; it does not identify the specific person in the image.
The company also renewed its call for legal responsibility for age verification to be shifted to app stores rather than individual developers.
Although we invest heavily in our own old age insurance technology, we know that no single company can solve this challenge. We believe legislation should require app stores to verify age and provide that information to apps and developers so they can offer age-appropriate experiences, like teen accounts.
The company says 88% of American parents support this approach.
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