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DPA/PA Images

Instagram trials AI tool to verify age of users

Users will be asked to send a video selfie to a British tech firm which will use AI to verify their age.

INSTAGRAM HAS SAID it is starting to trial a tool that relies on artificial intelligence (AI) to confirm the age of users in the US.

Lawmakers across the world have been vocal in demanding that the photo-sharing platform, owned by Facebook’s parent company Meta, protect young people from adult content and invasions of their privacy.

It’s a thorny issue that tech companies say is not easily solved, but could be tackled with broader technological changes like birthdates being tied to a person’s cell phone.

Meta announced testing of new verification tools for anyone trying to change their age from under 18 to over 18 on the platform, including recording a video selfie or asking friends to verify their age.

“We’re testing this so we can make sure teens and adults are in the right experience for their age group,” Meta said.

The video selfies will be sent to British tech firm Yoti, which has developed an AI tool that it says can work out the age of under-20s to within 1.5 years.

Though Yoti’s own data suggests its tool is generally worse at verifying the ages of women and girls, and people with darker skin.

Both Yoti and Meta said the selfies would be deleted after the check, and that “the technology cannot recognise your identity – just your age.”

The company is also trialling age verification via “social vouching”, where mutual followers confirm the age of a user.

The person vouching must be at least 18 years old, must not be vouching for anyone else at that time and will need to meet other safeguards to be eligible.

Last year, Instagram boss Adam Mosseri told US lawmakers he felt it was not Instagram’s job to check the age of users.

“I believe it would be much more effective to have age verification at the device level,” he said.

He suggested parents should make sure the child’s phone knew the age “as opposed to having every app, and there’s millions of apps out there, trying to verify age on their own”.

Instagram was rocked last year by revelations from whistleblower Frances Haugen that suggested executives were aware the platform could harm the mental health of young people, particularly teenage girls.

It has since rolled out several features aimed at protecting younger users.

© AFP 2022</a

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    Mute Chonky Racoon
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    Apr 1st 2019, 7:48 PM

    Sad! If I was to hazard I guess I’d plastic has a role to play.. Bet if you opened the whale up you’d find a lot of plastic

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    Mute Colette Kearns
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    Apr 1st 2019, 7:56 PM

    @Chonky Racoon: that’s what it says in the article!!

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    Mute Chonky Racoon
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    Apr 1st 2019, 9:34 PM

    @Colette Kearns: I didn’t read it. Big oppsies by me :)

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    Mute Alan Christopher
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    Apr 2nd 2019, 4:37 PM

    @Chonky Racoon: while it may well have plastic in its stomach (almost definitely does, to be honest), it wouldn’t be as common with sperm whales as they are toothed whales who actually hunt. Large amounts of plastic tend to be ingested by baleen whales who filter feed and don’t actively seek out specific prey.

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    Mute j4VEpUO8
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    Apr 1st 2019, 8:11 PM

    Very sad reading!. Magnificent creatures!, yet man is destroying their simple right of life!.

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    Mute missroisin
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    Apr 1st 2019, 7:56 PM

    Maybe one the 100 or so foreign Factory trawlers towing of the west coast of Ireland got it up in there nets and then dumped back the body and then it got washed up. That would be my guess.

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    Mute Tweety McTweeter
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    Apr 1st 2019, 8:21 PM

    @missroisin: You think a trawler accidentally picked up a 40ft whale and then threw it back in? Are you for real?

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    Mute Liam Whelan
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    Apr 1st 2019, 8:42 PM

    @Tweety McTweeter: have you ever seen a factory ship? They’re absolutely huge, there nets are about a mile or so long and just as tall! It could quite possibly be a cause!

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    Mute Shane Hughes
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    Apr 1st 2019, 9:10 PM

    @Liam Whelan: no your right. I went to the shops earlier and when I got home I found an elephant in my pocket. Must have picked it up by mistake.

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    Mute missroisin
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    Apr 2nd 2019, 5:43 AM

    @Tweety McTweeter: google annelies llena and magiris trawler , there is a massive fleet of worlds largest trawlers fishing of Ireland and yes you would fit 10 in there nets . So sort your comments out with facts I never said a trawler, I said a super trawler.

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    Mute dowthebow
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    Apr 2nd 2019, 4:16 PM

    @missroisin: well you didn’t say super you said foreign…

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    Mute Alan Christopher
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    Apr 2nd 2019, 4:40 PM

    @dowthebow: Well she said factory trawlers, which can have nets spanning close to 1km. So the point still stands.

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    Mute Pixie McMullen
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    Apr 1st 2019, 8:01 PM

    Don`t rule out Sonar from Submarines from the neighbours, especially in the present climate and friction between countries going on around the world

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    Mute Billy McNamara
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    Apr 1st 2019, 8:19 PM

    Could be just old age,and the animal knowing it’s end was near.Sperm Whales feed very deep on squid and unlikely plastic would be the cause in this instance.Many animals do die from old age,even in this polluted age.

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    Mute j4VEpUO8
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    Apr 1st 2019, 8:23 PM

    @Billy McNamara: I agree Billy but unfortunately plastic has been found recently at depths only a sub can dive. Was on BBC over the weekend. Still devastating for the whales.

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    Mute Paraic
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    Apr 1st 2019, 10:16 PM

    A lot of conspiracy theories floating about. Whales aren’t immortal y’know.

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    Mute Alan Christopher
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    Apr 2nd 2019, 4:42 PM

    @Paraic: Conspiracies, or just theories? Absolutely could have just been a old whale though, that is true.

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    Mute Alan Christopher
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    Apr 2nd 2019, 4:43 PM

    @Paraic: Scratch that. I see the conspiracy theories now!

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    Mute Johnny Conway
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    Apr 1st 2019, 9:23 PM

    So the royal navy is still patrolling our waters in the west killing Whales with there sonar again

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    Mute The Great Unwashed
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    Apr 2nd 2019, 2:17 PM

    @Johnny Conway:
    Were whales immortal before submarines were invented?

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    Mute Angry_Man41
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    Apr 1st 2019, 9:05 PM

    Ya, would b interesting to open this creature up and see how much plastic is in him. Would b shocked if it was very little.
    He may have died of natural causes, but plastic a curse for these creatures

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    Mute j4VEpUO8
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    Apr 1st 2019, 9:15 PM

    @Angry_Man41: I very much doubt that an autopsy will be carried out €€€

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    Mute Who cares?
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    Apr 1st 2019, 9:32 PM

    @T Jay O’Mea: I’ll go down and cut him open and have a look if someone pays my diesel!

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    Mute Sean O' Donovan
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    Apr 1st 2019, 10:11 PM

    @Who cares?: Time to set up a Go-Fund me page

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    Mute Denis McClean
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    Apr 2nd 2019, 12:26 AM

    There might be plastic and there might not. Fact is, a very distant mammalian cousin died but it’s a bonanza for those who will and should be free to feed on the carcass. Circle of life and hopefully nothing more. As the title says, nothing sinister, though they can pong for a while. Glorious creature.

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    Mute jamesdecay
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    Apr 1st 2019, 11:11 PM

    A stinking, rotting carcass washed up on the beach is a sad but fitting metaphor for Brexit.

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    Mute OpenLitterMap
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    Apr 1st 2019, 10:18 PM

    If you want to do something about plastic pollution, please share data on litter anywhere @ openlittermap.com – it’s like Pokémon Go for Tidy towns!

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    Mute GᗩᒪᒪEᖇY ᗩᑎᗪ ᗰᑌSEᑌᗰ ᑭᖇO-ᒪIᖴE STᗩᖴᖴ Iᑎ IᖇEᒪᗩᑎᗪ
    Favourite GᗩᒪᒪEᖇY ᗩᑎᗪ ᗰᑌSEᑌᗰ ᑭᖇO-ᒪIᖴE STᗩᖴᖴ Iᑎ IᖇEᒪᗩᑎᗪ
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    Apr 2nd 2019, 11:08 AM

    A pity. Such a majestic animal.
    Ireland has been suffering from a low Sperm Whale count for some time now.

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    Mute this_is_ireland
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    Apr 1st 2019, 11:01 PM

    Premature

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