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Instagram using AI to detect Canadian teens who signed up for adult accounts

Meta says it's trained its AI model to look for account creation dates and the interactions that a user has had on its platform

By Bradly Shankar
instagram app on a OnePlus android phone

Instagram has started testing an AI model that can help identify whether an adult account was created by a teenager.

Meta says it’s trained the AI based on such data as when the accounts were created and interactions they’ve had with other profiles and content on the app.

Those suspected of having falsely registered with an adult birthday will be placed into a teen account, which is limited in terms of the accounts it can communicate with, how much time they can spend on the app and what content they’re shown. These limits are automatically imposed on teen accounts, and any desired changes can be made once a parent sets up supervision.

Instagram first started placing Canadian teens into these accounts last year. This age verification feature, meanwhile, was first introduced in the U.S. in April. This week’s Canadian expansion comes alongside similar rollouts in the UK and Australia.

It remains to be seen how else Meta may improve age verification on its platform. After all, it’s easy to see how AI could mistake adults with more “juvenile” behaviour as being teens. (Hell, the world’s richest man, who’s 54 years old, has the maturity of a infant online.) We also saw last week at Meta Connect how AI tech can go wrong with the much-publicized failure of a live Meta AI demo between CEO Mark Zuckerberg and a content creator.

Via: Canadian Press

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