In the old days of the Internet, children could just lie about their age to unlock the full breadth of the World Wide Web and create accounts in social media services. As the Internet has grown bigger and more dangerous in recent times, some companies have started to crack down on this. Instagram requires its users to be at least 13 years old, and now, if you need to change the birthdate in your account, the app will need proof that the change is justified. To do so, it could enlist the use of some... peculiar methods.

In a blog post, Instagram explains this change. If you tweak your birthdate in your account, you'll need to verify it using one of three ways. There's the straightforward one, which involves taking a picture of your ID and sending it to Instagram. But Instagram now has two additional methods, and they're both a bit weird. The first one is a video selfie — the app can record a video of your face from multiple angles, and from there, it uses an AI called Yoti to analyze your facial features and estimate your age.

It looks like a straightforward solution on paper, but it's also one that raises some questions, like the fact that telling someone's age from how young/old they look is hardly an exact science. However, Yoti seems to have cracked the code, being verified by the Age Check Certification Scheme and endorsed by a German regulator to its accuracy. Its current margin of error is about 1.5 years for ages 13 to 19. Some companies using Yoti also require the service to recognize a higher age to accommodate this margin of error. For example, Yoti sometimes needs to recognize that someone is 23 instead of 18 to verify that they're truly at least 18. It's unclear if Instagram will work this way, too, if it can be more lax.

Yoti isn't supposed to be able to recognize someone's identity, and data used to verify the age is deleted right after the check is performed.

If you're not fond of this method, and you're not willing to wait 2 days for a human to check your ID, Instagram is also adding another option called "Social Vouching," where you can have Instagram reach out to mutual followers of your choice for them to confirm you're actually the age you say you are. There are a few requirements that these people have to fulfill. They need to be older than 18, can't vouch for someone else at the same time, and there are further unspecified safeguards in place.

All of these options are currently in testing and available for users in the US, and they'll presumably roll out to other countries down the line.