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Instagram Is Testing Age Verification For Teenagers Below 18

Posted: 26 Jun 2022 02:15 AM PDT

Image: Brytfmonline

To prevent age change from under 18 to 18 or above, the social media and video sharing giant Instagram has developed an age verification feature to help ascertain the real ages of teens. The feature is currently undergoing testing in the US. After rolling out the feature, teens who attempt to edit their age to at least 18 would be asked to ascertain their age by uploading a photo ID, recording a video selfie or asking a mutual friend(s) to establish their age.

According to Instagram on Thursday, the measure was because teens and adults are on the network with varying user experiences. This Meta subsidiary said further that it was sending video selfies to Yoti, a London-based company. Yoti uses artificial intelligence to estimate age based on facial features. The company started in 2014 by developing a free consumer app that put people's IDs on their phones. Their apps take privacy to the roof offering users safety of their personal details.

As of now, the company has well over 11 million app downloads globally. They have now extended to offer business solutions that include identity verification, age estimation etc. The Yoti technology cannot recognize any other identity but age. However, the news is that Meta and Yoti will delete video selfies for age verification once the age is established.

In a press release, Meta recognized that understanding people's ages online was a complex, industry-wide challenge. Therefore, they promised to collaborate with stakeholders in the industry to set clear standards for online verification of age. They further said that many people, such as teens, lack access to forms of ID that make age verification clear and simple. They, therefore, affirmed that they have to explore innovative methods to tackle the predicament of verifying users' age when they don't have an ID.

The age verification comes because of the concerns of parents and lawmakers in the US regarding linking the use of the platform to mental health issues of young users. Instagram has been criticized in the past because studies revealed that the mental health of young users is directly connected to the use of the platform. Hence, the stricter age check was the response of the company. The social media giant once rolled out Family Center to give parents control over the use of the platform by their wards.

Family Center was launched on March 16, 2022, as parental control feature set to help tackle the growing challenges around teen safety and mental health. It is one of the many tools of parental control to help parents guide their kids' activities on the network. Family Center was first rolled out in the US and will be available globally soon.

In 2019, Instagram started requiring users to provide their age when registering, and currently, the minimum age requirement to sign up is 13 years. However, depending on the jurisdiction, the age limit can be higher. Furthermore, Instagram requires that an account that represents users below the age of 13 must clearly state in the bio that it is managed to be a parent or manager. The company also gives room for the user to report accounts owned by users below 13, and their response will be deleting such accounts.

Source

#Instagram
#Meta
#Social Media

Sending WhatsApp Messages To Numbers Without Adding Them To Your Contact List

Posted: 25 Jun 2022 02:42 AM PDT

Image: Gadget Now

WhatsApp boasts well over two billion users, and the app happens to be one of the most popular messaging platforms in the world. With WhatsApp reaching different people anywhere in the globe has come easy. Time and time again, you get bombarded with different chats and messages from people not on your contact list, and you wonder how that is possible. This post will teach you how that is done and many other things about it.

As a business owner, you might want to chat with different people about your business or service without adding them to your contact list until they buy. Also, sending broadcast messages to different people on WhatsApp is popular today, and you want to join the bandwagon to push your idea out there. Well, with WhatsApp, all those and much more are possible. One thing about the WhatsApp messaging app is that you need to have the people you are sending a message to on your contact list to communicate with them.

When you have different numbers to send messages, you might not want to add them to your contact list. Adding too many numbers to your contact list can fill up your phone quickly and make it slow. Besides that, saving contacts on your phone takes extra effort and time. We will consider three easy ways to start a WhatsApp Chat without adding the phone number to your phonebook.

Using WhatsApp Click-To-Chat Method Via Short Links

Interestingly WhatsApp provides you with the feature to send messages to numbers without saving them on your contact list. The feature is not prominent, but it's available; it's the WhatsApp Click-to-chat. The feature helps users chat with anyone with an active WhatsApp account using the wa.me shortcut links. The feature is designed for web and app integration. This method works fine on both Android and iOS phones.

How To Use WhatsApp Click-To-Chat Feature

Launch your browser
Paste the link https://wa.me/phonenumber in the address bar. Note that the phone number field must contain the country and region code. It must not have modifiers such as +, - or even 00. For instance, if you are in Nigeria and the number you want to send the message to is a Nigerian number, the syntax you must use is https://wa.me/2348039972838.
The next step is to hit Enter, and WhatsApp will direct you to the WhatsApp API website. Hit the green button with the message "Continue to Chat," and the link will automatically take you in to chat.
Type in your message and send.

Using Third-Party Apps Specially Designed For the Purpose

There are loads of Third-Party Apps developed specially to send messages to people without saving them on your phonebook. This method is easier and faster than the first one. Examples of such apps include WhatsDirect, Direct Message for WhatsApp, WhatsDirect App, Direct Message for WhatsApp, Click to Chat, Whats Bulk Sender etc. On those apps, their mode of operation is similar, and it goes as follows:

Download the app on your phone and activate them
Type in the phone number and the chat message intended for the number.
Tap send, and you will be directed automatically into the main messaging app. However, you will keep seeing ads if you don't have the paid versions of any of these apps. The process is easy.

Using Direct Chat With Group Members

The last method is sending messages to people in the same WhatsApp group with you. This is the easiest method of all. It's as easy as just picking the numbers from the Group and sending your chat to them.

Source

#WhatsApp
#Android
#iOS
#How To

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