Meta Expands Instagram's AI Age-Estimation Tech Globally to Identify Teens via Visual Cues
Meta announces the global expansion of its AI-driven age-estimation technology on Instagram, aiming to identify suspected teen users even if they provide an adult birthday.
US technology company Meta announced on November 9 that it is expanding its AI-powered age-estimation technology on Instagram to a global scale. The move aims to more accurately identify users suspected of being teenagers and place them under the strict protections of "Teen Accounts," even if those users provided an adult date of birth during registration.
According to TechCrunch, Meta's age-estimation tools use AI to analyze contextual clues across entire profiles, such as birthday celebration posts, mentions of school grades, and content across various formats including posts, comments, bios, and captions. Additionally, the company examines visual cues from photos and videos, including a person's height or bone structure. Once the system suspects a user is a teen, the account is automatically classified as a "Teen Account," triggering additional safeguards such as restricting direct messages to people already followed or connected, hiding harmful comments, and setting accounts to private by default.
This global rollout comes amid significant legal pressure on Meta. In August, Meta reached settlements worth up to $18 billion with nearly every US state and territory to resolve lawsuits alleging its platforms harm teens. As part of these agreements, Meta committed to improving how it identifies teens and children under 13. "That’s why as part of our agreement with 52 bipartisan attorneys general... we’re investing in even stronger technology to proactively catch accounts that may belong to children under 13," Meta wrote in a blog post.
Beyond Instagram, Meta stated it is continuing to roll out the technology on Facebook, with a similar global rollout planned for Threads later this year. For parents in the US, Instagram will display an in-feed video explaining Meta's approach to ensuring their teens are in age-appropriate protections. This shift marks a transition for social media platforms from relying on self-reported ages to employing complex AI behavioral analysis and biometric inference to meet regulatory demands.