Three years after the introduction of Facebook Dating in the United States – the section of Facebook dedicated to dating – Meta introduces age verification. Only users of legal age will now be able to use the feature through a verification process introduced just today in the United States. We can therefore expect to have to verify the account also in Italy in the near future.
However, not everyone will be called to carry out the verification. Meta will request to carry out the process only if the algorithms detect doubts on the actual minor age of the users. So if you have a thick beard or white hair, you will hardly be invited to verify your account.
Facebook Dating: How age verification will work
For the verification process Meta relied on Yoti, a company that had already collaborated for the same process on Instagram. Once Facebook has doubts about the actual age of users, Yoti’s system will ask for send a photo of a valid ID or a selfie video. In this case, the age verification will be entrusted to the intelligent algorithm which, by scanning the face, will be able to determine the approximate age of the user. Meta promises that once you scan the video will be deleted from the databases.
Yoti’s technology is actually very controversial, also because it is considered inaccurate. Engadget explains that Yoti’s AI is inaccurate in the case of female faces with dark skin, while it tends to be more accurate when examining fair-skinned men. Despite these uncertainties, Meta says they’ve had a lot of success using Yoti’s software. On Instagram, for example, Meta believes that technology has prevented 96% of teenagers from changing their birth date to cheat the age limit.
The age issue is decidedly more delicate for features such as Facebook Dating, given the very nature of the service. In any case, age verification on Dating was introduced today in the United States, but will also arrive in Italy in the near future.
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