Meta turns to AI to identify teens who misrepresent their age

By Juliet Umeh Meta has expanded its artificial intelligence technology globally to identify teenagers who may have used an adult birthday to set up accounts and place them in age-appropriate protections. The company said on Monday that the technology would help more teenagers using Instagram receive the platform’s built-in Teen Account safeguards, even if they had misrepresented their age.

Meta said some teenagers misrepresent their age online to access experiences they are not old enough to use, describing this as an “industry-wide challenge”. “Ensuring all teens receive these protections depends on knowing their age,” the company said. The Teen Account features on Instagram, Facebook and Messenger automatically limit who can contact teenagers, the content they see and the time they spend on the apps.

Meta said it uses AI to identify people it suspects are teenagers, “even if they use an adult birthday”, and place them in Teen Account protections. “Since first introducing this technology, Meta has been placing more teens in age-appropriate protections and is encouraged by the results,” the company said. It added that the global expansion would mean “millions more teens across the world who use Instagram” would receive the safeguards.

Meta said the move would offer parents “greater peace of mind”, adding that it was working to place teenagers in age-appropriate protections “no matter where they live”. The company said it was continuing to roll out the technology on Facebook and would begin introducing similar technology globally on Threads later this year.