How’s META keeping teenagers safe online?

Australian Community Media

META explained its age verification process and safety features during the government's Joint Select Committee on Social Media and Australian Society.

Transcript

00:00As part of our efforts to provide age-appropriate experiences, we take a multilayered approach to understanding someone's age.

00:08We require users to provide their date of birth when they register new accounts, a tool called an age screen.

00:16Those who enter their age under 13 are not allowed to sign up.

00:20The age screen is age-neutral.

00:22In other words, the options offered do not assume that someone is old enough to use our service,

00:28and we restrict people who repeatedly try to enter different birthdays into the age screen.

00:33We've been investing in and developing AI age estimation tools.

00:38While this technology is evolving and is far from perfect, it plays an important role in the safeguards we provide,

00:44and we continue to try to improve its efficacy.

00:48In addition to AI, we have teams reviewing reported accounts that appear to be used by people who are underage

00:55and also can place checks on accounts that appear underage in the course of the normal content review.

01:01If these people are unable to meet our minimum age requirements, we delete their accounts.

01:08Where we require age verification, for example, if a teen tries to age up on our platform,

01:14we use a wide menu of options to verify age.

01:20It allows users to do so by submitting ID documents or uploading a video selfie for face-based age prediction,

01:30which is done through Yodi.

01:32That is a third-party vendor based out of the U.K. which provides privacy-preserving age estimation services.

01:39Our focus on age insurance enables us to provide specific protections for those under the age of 18.

01:46These safeguards include defaulting new teen accounts to private, preventing adults over 18 from starting a private conversation

01:55on Instagram DM and Messenger with a teen who is not already connected with them,

02:00limiting the discoverability of a teen's account, age gating for sensitive content that we may allow on our platform

02:07for public interest, newsworthiness, or free expression value, but may be disturbing or sensitive for young users.

02:15In addition to removing content that violates our policies, we also aim to make it harder for teens to see potentially sensitive content.

02:23For example, we have a sensitive content control that's defaulted to the most restrictive setting for people under the age of 18.

02:32We also limit advertisers' ability to reach young people.

02:36We only allow advertisers to target ads to people under 18 based on their age and geography.

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