Instagram's Teen Accounts automatically apply safeguards intended to limit potentially unwanted interactions and exposure to inappropriate content. Profiles are private by default, restrictions prevent strangers from contacting teenagers, and built-in controls manage daily app usage. Parents can also access supervision features to help oversee their children's experiences.
Meta already offers Teen Account protections across Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger. The latest expansion focuses on identifying users who should receive those protections but might otherwise avoid them by entering an older age.
To make those determinations, Meta uses AI systems that examine multiple signals associated with a user's likely age. The company has previously described analyzing physical characteristics in photos, including bone structure, alongside contextual information such as references to school grades and birthday celebrations.
The approach allows Meta to assign age-appropriate settings without relying exclusively on the birth date entered during registration. However, the technology also raises questions about how platforms can accurately determine users' ages while minimizing the collection of sensitive personal information.
Meta is also introducing an additional age-verification signal in Australia through Apple's age-range system. When parents configure a teenager's device, they can allow the app store to establish an age range that is subsequently shared with developers when the teenager downloads an application.
Meta has begun using that information as another input for determining whether users meet age requirements. The company argues that device-level verification could provide a more consistent method of protecting younger users across different services.
The initiative also reflects Meta's longstanding position that app stores should take greater responsibility for verifying ages and obtaining parental consent. The company supports legislation requiring those checks at the app store level, with individual developers using their own age-estimation systems to identify potential mistakes.
Meta says the current voluntary approach creates gaps because app stores are not universally required to provide age information, and developers are not obligated to use it. It maintains that a shared verification system would reduce the need for individual platforms to repeatedly collect sensitive identifying information.
Alongside the expansion, Meta plans to introduce additional guidance for American parents. Beginning this month, Instagram users in the United States will see an in-feed video explaining how the company identifies teenagers and applies account restrictions.
The video will direct parents to an article by Larry Magid, president and CEO of the internet safety organization ConnectSafely. The article describes Meta's age-assurance methods, including efforts to identify children younger than 13, provide appropriate experiences for teenagers, and encourage families to maintain accurate account information. The resource will also be accessible internationally.
The changes follow Meta's recent agreement with 52 bipartisan attorneys general representing US states, territories, and the District of Columbia. The agreement includes commitments to improve how the company identifies underage users and applies protections to teenagers.
Meta has faced legal challenges over allegations that its social platforms harm younger users. In August, the company reached settlements involving attorneys general across nearly every US state and territory. It also settled a separate case brought by a teenager in Los Angeles concerning claims that Instagram and Facebook were designed to encourage addictive use.
Under its commitments, Meta is investing in technology intended to identify accounts potentially belonging to children under 13, while improving detection of users ages 13 to 17 who may have registered as adults.
The company is also urging competing platforms to adopt similar practices. Meta specifically called on TikTok and YouTube to strengthen their age-assurance systems, arguing that protections remain inconsistent when different services use different methods to identify younger users.
With Instagram's worldwide expansion underway, Meta is extending its reliance on AI to determine which users receive additional safeguards rather than depending solely on self-reported ages. The company has not provided a precise number of accounts that will be reclassified, but expects millions more teenagers to be covered as the technology reaches additional markets.
This analysis is based on reporting from Meta & Engadget.
Image courtesy of Meta.
This article was generated with AI assistance and reviewed for accuracy and quality.
