iWorld
Instagram introduces new ways to verify age in India & Brazil
Mumbai: Meta-owned Instagram has announced that it has expanded the test of new options for people to verify their age to additional countries, including India and Brazil. The company further stated that it plans to expand to the UK and EU before the end of the year.
The company has brought its new test for users to verify their age via an original ID or video selfie to India. It says that kids today are using fake dates of birth to create profiles on social media platforms.
It requires people to be at least 13 years old to sign up for the service. In some countries, the minimum age is higher. Uners who are teens (13–17) will be offered age-appropriate experiences like defaulting them into private accounts, preventing unwanted contact from adults they don’t know and limiting the options advertisers have to reach them with ads.
If someone attempts to edit their date of birth on Instagram under the age of 18 to 18, or over, in India, they will be required to verify their age using one of three options: upload their ID, record a video selfie, or ask mutual friends to verify their age. The company also expressed that they’re testing this to make sure teens and adults are getting the right experience for their age group.
Instagram further added that it is removing “Social Vouching” as an option to verify age from the test to make some improvements.
The Social Vouching option allows users to ask mutual followers to confirm how old they are. The person vouching must be at least 18 years old, must not be doing it for anyone else at that time, and will need to meet other safeguards that are in place. The three people selected to vouch for the user will receive a request to confirm the user’s age and will need to respond within three days.
Further, Instagram also stated that it is partnering with Yoti, a company that specialises in privacy-preserving ways to verify age. Yoti is verified by the Age Check Certification Scheme and is an age verification provider for several industries around the world, including social media, gaming, and age-restricted e-commerce. Yoti has received public support for its approach and knowledge of responsible artificial intelligence from authorities and governmental organisations in the fields of youth and privacy, including the German regulator KJM.
Yoti notes that it trains its dataset on anonymous images of diverse people from around the world who have transparently allowed the company to use their data and who can ask them to delete their data at any time. For people under the age of 13, Yoti collected data using specific data collection exercises where parents or guardians had given explicit consent.
iWorld
Telcos push for unified rules as spam shifts to OTT platforms
Over 80 per cent fraud moves online, operators seek common framework.
MUMBAI: The spam may have left your phone network but it hasn’t left you alone. India’s telecom operators are once again dialling up the pressure for a unified regulatory framework, warning that fraud is rapidly migrating to internet-based platforms where oversight remains far looser. According to industry communication, a leading operator has written to multiple arms of the government including the Department of Telecommunications, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the Ministry of Finance arguing that tighter controls on traditional telecom networks are inadvertently pushing bad actors towards over-the-top (OTT) communication platforms.
The concern is not new, but the framing has sharpened. What was once an industry grievance is now being positioned as a consumer protection issue. Operators say that tackling spam in silos no longer works, as fraudsters seamlessly shift across platforms, exploiting regulatory gaps. The result: a moving target that traditional safeguards struggle to contain.
Executives point to a clear shift in fraud patterns. OTT platforms are increasingly being used for phishing links, impersonation scams and bulk unsolicited messaging, with industry estimates suggesting that over 80 per cent of spam activity has now migrated online. In this environment, the lines between telecom networks, messaging apps and financial fraud are blurring fast.
At the heart of the industry’s demand is a call for a technology-neutral regulatory framework, one that applies consistently across telecom and internet-based communication services. Operators argue that the absence of uniform safeguards, such as sender verification systems, robust spam filters and clearly defined accountability mechanisms, has created enforcement blind spots that fraudsters are quick to exploit.
The proposal is straightforward but far-reaching. Telcos are pushing for baseline anti-fraud measures across all communication platforms, alongside faster response systems and deeper coordination between ministries. Given the interconnected nature of telecom networks, digital platforms and financial systems, they argue that fragmented oversight only weakens the overall defence.
The broader issue is regulatory arbitrage, the ability of bad actors to hop between platforms based on which is least regulated at any given time. Without harmonised rules, operators say, efforts to curb fraud risk becoming a game of whack-a-mole.
As digital communication continues to expand, the debate is shifting from who regulates what to how consistently it is regulated. For now, telecom operators are making their case clear: in a world where spam travels freely, regulation cannot afford to stay fragmented.
