When Meta announced that it was adding restrictions to teen accounts to protect kids on Instagram, a lot of parents had the same thought: Kids will just lie about their age to get around the new rules.
Meta had an answer for that. The company says it will require teens to verify their age if they try to change their birthday and will not allow new accounts with different birthdays from the same device. In an interview, a Meta executive admitted verifying age is a challenging area for the industry.
So why is it so hard? Mainly because any solution often creates new problems. Asking users to hand over a government ID leads to privacy concerns. Massive data breaches have shown that companies have a tough time protecting personal data.
Collecting enough credible information to confirm someone’s age can also be tough without violating privacy laws. Technology like facial recognition is getting better but it still is not reliable enough to accurately determine age.
There are solutions in the works, the big one being digital IDs. A digital ID is like an electronic driver’s license or passport. The TSA already accepts digital IDs at some airport checkpoints. Some states offer a mobile drivers license, which is just like a regular driver’s license but is stored on your phone. Some websites now accept these digital IDs to confirm age, but they are not yet in widespread use.