Meta Expands Instagram's AI Age Estimation Tech Worldwide

How the detection works

Meta's system analyzes entire profiles for contextual clues, such as birthday celebrations or mentions of school grades. It looks for these signals across posts, comments, bios, captions and other formats. The company also draws on visual cues from photos and videos, including a person's height or bone structure.

Accounts flagged as likely belonging to teens are moved into Teen Accounts. That setup restricts direct messages to people the user already follows or is connected to, hides harmful comments and makes accounts private by default.

Settlements behind the push

In August, Meta reached settlements worth up to $18 billion with nearly every U.S. state and territory to resolve lawsuits alleging its platforms harm teens. As part of those agreements, the company committed to improving how it identifies teens and children under 13.

"We're also strengthening the technology we use to identify accounts that may belong to teens between the ages of 13 and 17 so we can ensure those accounts are placed in experiences designed for teens, even if they give us an adult birthday," Meta wrote in a blog post. The company said it is also investing in stronger technology to proactively catch accounts that may belong to children under 13, as part of its agreement with 52 bipartisan attorneys general.

Meta said it is continuing to roll out the technology on Facebook, with a similar global rollout planned for Threads later this year. Parents in the U.S. will begin seeing an in-feed video on Instagram that explains how the company works to keep teens in age-appropriate protections.