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Meta Platforms is expanding its artificial intelligence-powered age detection technology worldwide to identify more teenagers on Instagram and place them under additional safety protections. The move comes as the social media company faces growing legal pressure over allegations that its platforms harm young users.
The expansion will help Instagram identify accounts that may belong to teenagers, even when users have entered birth dates indicating they are adults. Meta said the updated system is expected to bring millions of additional teenagers under its Teen Account protections.
The technology uses AI to estimate a user's age by examining information available across their profile and activity. This includes details in posts, comments, biographies and captions, along with other contextual signals. Meta can also use visual information from photos and videos to help estimate whether an account belongs to a teenager.
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Teen Accounts come with restrictions designed to create a safer online experience. These include limits on who can contact young users, controls over the content they can view and restrictions on how much time they spend on the platform.
Accounts are private by default, while direct messages from people teenagers do not follow or already know are restricted. Users aged 16 and younger generally need parental permission to make certain changes to their account settings.
Meta said parents in the United States will begin receiving Instagram notifications explaining how the company identifies teenage accounts and how families can help ensure age information is accurate. The company is also using Apple's age-range signal in Australia as an additional way to understand users' ages.
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The global rollout follows legal action by US states and territories alleging that Meta's platforms contribute to harm among young people. The company has agreed to strengthen its age-identification systems as part of commitments involving 52 attorneys general.
Meta is also extending age-estimation technology on Facebook and plans to introduce similar measures on Threads later this year. The company says stronger age checks are necessary to ensure teenagers receive protections even when they provide incorrect birth dates.