Social media companies are trying harder to know which users are kids
Summary
Social media companies like Meta, Google, TikTok, and Roblox are working to better identify which users are children to improve online safety. Meta agreed to enhance its technology for checking ages as part of an $18 billion legal settlement related to children's mental health concerns.Key Facts
- Meta settled a lawsuit with 48 states and territories over claims it harmed children's mental health via Instagram and Facebook.
- The settlement requires Meta to improve its way of verifying users’ ages within one year.
- Age verification is important because child safety measures depend on knowing if users are kids.
- Companies struggle with age verification online because people hesitate to share government IDs digitally.
- Meta deletes ID information within 30 days after using it to verify age.
- Many companies use artificial intelligence (AI) to estimate user age by analyzing factors like posts, friends, and activity times.
- AI looks for clues such as birthday posts, school-related content, and visual features like height or bone structure to guess age.
- AI estimation is not the same as legal age verification, since it cannot confirm an exact birthdate.
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