Meta brings age verification tools to Facebook Dating

Last month, Meta announced new privacy features for teens on Facebook and Instagram to protect them from adults intending to exploit them. The social media giant has now announced a new set of tools to restrict people under the of 18 from using Facebook Dating in the United States. The company has launched new age verification tools to verify that only adults are using its dating service.

Meta has collaborated with online age-verification company Yuti to “help protect people’s privacy and provide them with multiple options to choose from to verify their age.” If Facebook Dating detect that someone may be a minor trying to access the service, the company will prompt them to verify their age. Users will have two methods by which they can verify their age.

As described by Meta, users can take a video selfie, and the company will then share a still from the video selfie with Yuti. Yuti’s age verification technology estimates age based on facial features and shares it with Meta. The access to Facebook Dating will depend on whether Yuti estimated your age to be 18 or above. It is worth noting that Yuti’s age-verification technology cannot recognize your identity.

Users have more than one option to verify their age on Facebook Dating. If someone is not comfortable sharing a video selfie for whatever reason, they can try uploading an ID to verify their age. In its official blog post, the company mentioned that the copy of your ID “will be encrypted and stored securely, and won’t be visible on your Facebook profile or to other people on the app.” After a successful verification, users can manage how long their IDs are saved for.

It is not the first time Meta will be using age verification tools. The social media giant started testing these tools on Instagram, and it has seen positive results. As per the tech giant, it was able to stop 96 percent of teens from faking their age on Facebook Dating.

While these age-verification tools are currently limited to the United States, Meta says it will “bring its age-detection technology and verification tools to other countries globally where Facebook Dating is available.”