Agence France-PresseMar 17, 2021 11:03:57 IST
Instagram has unveiled a new technology that aims to prevent minors from creating accounts and prevent adults from contacting young users they don’t know. The most recent trend was to address concerns about inappropriate communication between adults and children on the platform, which like most services sets a minimum age of 13 Instagram will start using artificial intelligence to verify a user ‘s age at the time of signing in an effort to find underage users.
Instagram to use new technology to identify underage users
“While many people are honest about their age, we know that young people can lie about their date of birth. We want to do more to stop this, but online age verification is complex and something that many in our industry are obsessed with, “said a blog post.
“To meet this challenge, we are developing new artificial intelligence and machine learning technology to help us keep teenagers safer and implement new age-appropriate features. “
Instagram is releasing new tools and security features for child safety on the platform.
Instagram to block unsolicited conversations between adults and teens
In addition, the California giant said it would introduce a new feature that prevents adults from sending messages to people under 18 who are not following them, to prevent unwanted communication. Instagram says it will also start using tips – or safety alerts – to encourage teens to be cautious in conversations with adults they’re already connected to. At the time of signing, Instagram says it will encourage users under the age of 18 to keep their accounts private.
“This feature relies on our work to predict the age of people using machine learning technology, and the age that people give us when they sign in,” Instagram said.
Instagram is also looking at ways to make it harder for adults who have been exhibiting “potentially suspicious behavior” to interact with teens, including banning the those adults from viewing suggested teenage accounts. Instagram also restricts these adults from viewing teen accounts in ‘Suggested Users’, prevents them from finding teen content in Reels or Explore, and hides their comments on posts public with teenagers automatically. Instagram also pointed out that it will warn teenagers about potentially suspicious behavior by adults, including sending large numbers of private messages.
“We will use this tool to warn the recipients … and to give them the option to end the conversation, or block, report, or restrict the adult, “Instagram said.
Instagram is making Parental Guidance more widely available
In addition, in the US, Instagram has also partnered with The Child Mind Institute and ConnectSafely to publish a new paper Parental Guidance. It includes the latest security tools and privacy settings, as well as a list of tips and a conversation starter to help parents manage conversations with their teens about their online presence. This updated Guide was launched in India last month.
With comments from Agence France-Presse