Meta has announced the expansion of its Instagram “age verification test” to six additional countries, including Europe and Canada.
“Starting today, we’re beginning to expand our age verification test on Instagram to more countries in Europe, Mexico, Canada, South Korea, Australia and Japan,” the company wrote in an updated blog post on Thursday.
It also stated that it plans on making the age verification tools available in other countries all over the globe in the coming months.
In June of last year, the company began testing additional tools for Instagram users to verify their age, beginning with those in the United States.
The platform requires users who want to change their date of birth from under the age of 18 to 18 or older to prove their age by uploading a copy of their ID, taking a video selfie, or asking a friend who knows them to do so.
This will ensure “that teens and adults are in the right experience for their age group,” the company says.
“In addition to testing the new menu of options to verify people’s ages, we also use artificial intelligence (AI) to understand if someone is a teen or an adult,” it said.
Instagram started asking users for their age during registration in 2019, and the minimum age to join up is presently 13 years old. Nevertheless, the age restriction may be greater depending on the jurisdiction.
Additionally, Instagram requires accounts representing users under the age of 13 to clearly mention in their bio that they are controlled by a parent or manager. The company also allows users to report accounts owned by people under the age of 13, and its response is to delete such accounts.
