Instagram to verify your age with selfies to crack down on “teens posing as adults”.

INSTAGRAM is now asking teens to verify their age with a video selfie or ID.

If you’re trying to switch from a child to an adult account, you’ll need to prove your age.

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It’s part of Instagram’s ongoing fight to correctly identify teens — and keep very young children off the app.

The first is to upload a selfie to the Instagram app – with UK-based company Yoti.

Yoti analyzes selfies to determine age groups with around 98-99% accuracy.

It works by checking your facial features in a video selfie and creating an age estimate.

Once Instagram (and its parent company Meta) and Yoti have verified your age, the video will be deleted.

The second method is to upload a photo of your ID.

“We want everyone to experience Instagram in a way that’s age-appropriate, which means we need to know how old they are — and that’s a challenge across our industry,” said Tara Hopkins, public policy director at Instagram.

“That’s why today’s announcement is such an important step and we’re particularly excited to be working with Yoti, who are at the forefront of building effective age verification technology with privacy at the forefront.

“This work complements our ongoing efforts to improve our age-detection technology and develop new ways to provide teens with the safest and most meaningful experience on Instagram.”

This process is triggered when someone attempts to change their date of birth from under 18 to over 18 on Meta-owned Instagram.

The video selfie option is available for users who do not have access to an ID.

It should prevent some teens from switching to an adult account.

However, it is still not possible to prevent all minors from creating adult accounts.

“Online verification of age is a complex, industry-wide challenge,” said Yotis Policy Chief Julie Dawson.

“We’re excited to continue our work with Meta to create age-appropriate experiences and enable people to thrive and be safe online.”

Selfie-based age verification was already available in the US but is now also available in the UK and EU.

It’s rolling out starting today, so be sure to update your app to get the latest features.

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