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Meta is expanding the global deployment of its artificial intelligence technology to identify teenagers who misrepresent their ages on social media and automatically place them under age-appropriate account protections.
The expansion will see millions more teenagers using Instagram receive built-in safety restrictions designed to limit who can contact them, the content they can access and the time they spend on the platform.
The technology will also be rolled out on Facebook, while similar protections are expected to launch globally on Threads later this year.
Meta announced the development on November 9, saying the AI system was designed to identify users suspected to be teenagers, even when they provide adult dates of birth during account registration.
The initiative is aimed at addressing the challenge of age misrepresentation among young users seeking to access online experiences intended for adults.
According to the company, ensuring that teenagers receive appropriate online protections depends largely on accurately establishing their ages, an issue it described as an industry-wide challenge.
Meta said its AI technology analyses available signals to identify accounts that may belong to teenagers, regardless of the birth date provided by the account holder.
Once identified, the accounts are placed under Teen Account protections, which automatically introduce restrictions on interactions, content exposure and app usage.
The company said its experience since introducing the technology had encouraged it to expand the system globally, with millions of additional teenage Instagram users expected to benefit.
Teen Accounts on Instagram, Facebook and Messenger are designed to provide younger users with a more controlled social media experience through built-in safety features.
Meta said the global expansion would also provide parents with greater assurance that teenagers would receive age-appropriate protections, even when they attempt to bypass age requirements by registering with adult birthdays.
The company added that it had spent more than a decade working with experts to develop tools and resources aimed at helping teenagers and families have safer and more age-appropriate experiences across its platforms.
