Meta announced on Monday that it is leveraging AI technology to identify children who are misrepresenting their age on Instagram in an attempt to circumvent safety measures. When the platform detects an account that it believes may belong to a teenager, it will automatically convert the account into a restricted Teen Account, even if the user claims to be an adult by providing a fake birthday.
Teen Accounts, which were introduced on Instagram last year, offer young users an experience enhanced with protective features. These safeguards are automatically applied to teenage users, limiting who can contact them and regulating the types of content they can access. For users under 16, parental consent is required to modify any of these settings.
Instagram has been utilizing AI to assess age for some time, but it has now confirmed that this technology is also being used to ensure that teens access Instagram through Teen Accounts instead of adult profiles.
Last year, the company informed TechCrunch of its plans to implement this feature, explaining that it would identify accounts belonging to teens who have used a fake adult birthday by detecting birthday posts and receiving reports from other users. Instagram claims to be actively improving its technology to accurately assign teens to Teen Accounts, and it provides the option for individuals to adjust their settings if a mistake occurs.
“The digital landscape is constantly changing, and we must adapt alongside it,” the company stated in its blog post. “This underscores the importance of collaborating with parents to ensure that as many teens as possible benefit from the protective measures associated with Teen Accounts.”
Additionally, Instagram announced that it will begin notifying parents about how they can discuss the significance of accurately reporting age online with their teens. The platform emphasizes that one of the most effective ways for parents to ensure their teens are in safe accounts is to verify that their profile includes the correct birth date.
This announcement follows closely after Meta’s introduction of Teen Accounts for Facebook and Messenger just two weeks ago.
So far, Meta reports that it has enrolled over 54 million teens in Teen Accounts globally, with 97% of teens aged 13-15 remaining within these protected accounts.
