Meta Expands AI Age Detection on Instagram to Identify Underage Users

Meta has begun rolling out its artificial intelligence-based age detection system on Instagram worldwide, aiming to identify users who may have registered with an adult's date of birth. The company confirmed the expansion on Monday, saying the technology will automatically flag accounts it believes belong to teenagers and place them under Instagram's Teen Account safeguards.

The tool examines a range of profile signals to estimate a user's age. According to Meta, the system reviews posts, comments, biographies, captions and other activity for contextual clues such as birthday celebrations or references to school grades. It also analyses visual information in photos and videos, including physical characteristics like height and bone structure, to help estimate how old a user might be.

A key feature of the system is its ability to act even when a user has entered a birth date suggesting they are an adult. Once an account is flagged, it automatically receives the additional protections built into Instagram's Teen Account framework, regardless of the date of birth originally provided.

The global rollout comes as Meta faces continuing legal scrutiny over how its platforms affect younger users, and the company is positioning the technology as a way to strengthen safeguards for minors. Meta said it is also continuing to introduce age-estimation tools on Facebook, with a similar worldwide rollout planned for Threads later in 2026.

The expansion reflects a broader push by social media firms to use automated systems to verify user ages and apply stricter default settings for younger audiences, an issue that regulators and parents have increasingly raised in recent years.