Last month, Meta announced new privacy features for teens on Facebook and Instagram to protect them from adults seeking to exploit them. The social media giant has now announced a new set of tools to ban people under the age of 18 from using Facebook Dating in the United States. The company has launched new age verification tools to verify that only adults are using its dating service.
Meta has partnered with online age-verification company Yuti to “help protect people’s privacy and provide them with multiple options to choose from when verifying their age.” If Facebook Dating detects that someone may be a minor trying to access the service, the company will ask them to verify their age. Users will have two ways by which they can verify their age.
As noted by Meta, users can take a video selfie, and then the company will share a still from the video selfie with UT. Yuti’s age verification technology estimates age based on facial features and shares it with Meta. Access to Facebook Dating will depend on whether the UT has determined that you are 18 or older. It’s worth noting that UT’s age-verification technology cannot recognize your identity.
Users on Facebook Dating have more than one option to verify their age. If a person is not comfortable sharing a video selfie for any reason, they can try to upload an ID to verify their age. in his official blog post, the company noted that the copy of your ID will be “encrypted and securely stored, and will not be visible to other people on your Facebook profile or app.” After a successful verification, users can manage how long their ID is saved.
This is not the first time Meta will be using an age verification tool. The social media giant started testing these tools on Instagram and has shown positive results. According to the tech giant, it was able to stop 96 percent of teens from showing fake ages on Facebook Dating.
While these age-verification tools are currently limited to the United States, Meta says it will “bring its age-detection technology and verification tools to other countries globally where Facebook Dating is available.”