The political push for online platforms to introduce age verification was never a war between users and their privacy could win – if the battle to prevent it in the first place was lost.
The reasons are the methods and technologies available – one being the unmasking of all users with government-issued IDs, while one seeming alternative, now in the works over at Meta, is yet another facet of the age verification dystopian nightmare.
Reports say that instead of seeking outright proof of identity (and therefore age), Meta (Facebook, Instagram) is opting to “estimate” that age – by going the route of aggressive data mining.
The “AI” tool Meta plans to put to use is proprietary – meaning, closed-source, therefore unavailable to a public audit, despite the fact it is affecting billions of users. It is called, an “adult classifier.”
The tool goes through content related to users’ profiles, and the profiles themselves in the hope of “guessing” whether they belong to somebody 18 and under, or an adult. As is to be expected of proprietary software, the giant isn’t – because it doesn’t have to – revealing how accurate the results are expected to be.
What is known is that the type of data Meta is gathering and analyzing is found in users’ follower lists, including things like “happy birthday” messages.
But in the end, if it decides this is insufficient to “guess” the real age, or suspects a user’s self-reported age is fake, Meta will ask for proof of real-world identity.
All this is now developing around an Instagram feature announced in September, known as “teen accounts,” which feature appropriately restricted settings.
Thus far, the information used by Instagram has been the birthday each user declares while creating an account, but now the murky – in both its mechanics and usefulness – tool, the “adult classifier” – is coming onto the scene.
It does look like Meta trying to convince the world it is doing something, while in the end, the whole thing comes down to demanding proof of identity via government-issued ID.
The circle is complete – those counting on spreading biometric mass surveillance will have their way.
“Teens who try to manually increase the age listed on their account will have to prove themselves by uploading formal identification, like a driver’s license, or by sending in a video-selfie to Yoti, a third-party service that can estimate age based on facial features,” says a report.
