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Instagram boosts child protection tools, including age prediction
WASHINGTON, March 16, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – Facebook-owned Instagram unveiled
technology Tuesday aimed at preventing underage children from creating
accounts and blocking adults from contacting young users they don’t know.
It was the latest move responding to concerns about inappropriate contact
between adults and children on the platform, which like most services sets an
age minimum of 13.
Instagram will begin using artificial intelligence to determine a user’s
age at signup in an effort to find 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 from
happening, but verifying people’s age online is complex and something many in
our industry are grappling with,” a blog post said.
“To address this challenge, we’re developing new artificial intelligence
and machine learning technology to help us keep teens safer and apply new
age-appropriate features.”
Additionally, the California giant said it would introduce a new feature
that prevents adults from sending messages to people under 18 who don’t
follow them, to prevent unwanted contact.
“This feature relies on our work to predict peoples’ ages using machine
learning technology, and the age people give us when they sign up,” Instagram
said.
Instagram is also looking at ways to make it more difficult for adults who
have been exhibiting “potentially suspicious behavior” to interact with
teens, including restricting these adults from seeing suggested teen
accounts.
The image-focused network indicated it will alert teens to potentially
suspect behavior by adults, including the sending of large numbers of private
messages.
“We’ll use this tool to alert the recipients… and give them an option to
end the conversation, or block, report, or restrict the adult,” Instagram
said.
BSS/AFP/RY/20:08hrs