The announcement, made on November 9, will initially expand the technology across Instagram, where millions more teenagers are expected to be automatically placed in the platform's Teen Account protections, even when they have registered using birth dates indicating they are adults.
According to Meta, its AI technology examines profile information and contextual clues that may indicate a user's actual age. These include references to school grades, birthday celebrations, posts, comments, biographies and captions.
The company also uses visual analysis of photographs and videos to identify general characteristics that may suggest a person is underage. Meta has clarified that this technology is not facial recognition and does not identify individuals in images.
Teen Accounts come with built-in safeguards designed to provide age-appropriate online experiences. These include restrictions on who can contact teenagers, limitations on the content they can access and controls over their time on the platforms.
Meta said it is continuing to expand the technology on Facebook, while similar global age-estimation measures are expected to reach Threads later this year.
In Australia, the company has also started using Apple's age-range signal as an additional method of determining whether users meet the relevant age requirements. The system allows participating app developers to receive an age range supplied through Apple's app-store process.
The expansion comes amid increasing legal and regulatory scrutiny over children's safety on social media and allegations that major technology platforms have not done enough to protect young users.
Meta said the latest measures build on its commitments under an agreement involving 52 US state attorneys general to strengthen the identification of teenage users and children under 13. The company maintains that identifying users' ages is essential to ensuring that young people receive appropriate protections, particularly when they attempt to bypass age restrictions by providing inaccurate birth dates. The global expansion represents another step in the growing use of artificial intelligence by technology companies to enforce age-related safety measures across social media platforms.
