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Meta has rolled out artificial intelligence-powered age-estimation technology worldwide to detect teenage users who registered for its social media platforms using adult birth dates. The social media giant announced the implementation on Monday, stating that millions of young people globally will be placed into its restricted Teen Accounts.
How the AI Age-Check System Operates
The AI system is designed to determine an account holder’s actual age regardless of the birth date provided during registration. The technology scans user profiles for contextual clues such as birthday celebrations or mentions of school grades, alongside visual cues in pictures and videos without utilizing facial recognition. Flagged profiles are then shifted into restricted Teen Accounts across Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger, or removed entirely in regions with strict age limits for social media use.
In the United States, Meta introduced specific limits for users under 18, including a two-hour daily usage cap and a midnight-to-6:00 AM curfew. In Australia, the company integrated an Apple feature that verifies a user’s age range during device setup and shares that data with downloaded applications. Meta stated its support for legislation requiring app stores to handle user age verification centrally.
Legal Pressures and Regulatory Backdrop
Meta tied the new policy to an out-of-court settlement reached in August regarding a lawsuit brought by 29 US states and 52 US attorneys general. The company faced accusations of designing Facebook and Instagram to addict minors, collecting their data, and encouraging them to bypass age checks. Under the settlement agreement, Meta agreed to pay up to $18 billion to plaintiffs and implement platform changes to protect minors.
The company also faced additional legal setbacks this year, including a $375 million penalty in March after a New Mexico court ruled Meta misled the public regarding platform safety for minors. Meanwhile, governments worldwide have increasingly intervened through regulatory measures and bans targeting underage social media use in countries such as the United Kingdom, Indonesia, Australia, and Turkiye.
Expert Skepticism and Privacy Concerns
Sonia Livingstone, a professor at the London School of Economics and director of the Digital Futures for Children Centre, told Al Jazeera that Meta has not provided evidence showing its system successfully prevents underage users from accessing the platforms. Livingstone noted an absence of clear proof that young children are barred from creating profiles or that active teens are successfully routed into Teen Accounts.
Livingstone further told Al Jazeera that the age verification process creates privacy risks for all users because the system attempts to isolate children by scanning everyone’s data. Independent audits are necessary to determine functionality, as trust in handling personal data remains difficult without external oversight. Regulatory scrutiny also extends across the industry, with European Union regulators recently threatening TikTok owner ByteDance with fines over addictive platform designs.
