Meta is using AI technology to search for children lying about their age on Instagram to bypass safeguards, the company announced Monday. If Meta finds an account that is suspected of belonging to a teenager, the platform will register for a restricted teen account, even if the account lists adult birthdays.
Launched on Instagram last year, the Teen account signs up younger users for an app experience with built-in protection. Safeguard automatically applies to teens, restricting who can contact teens via the app and limit the types of content that account holders can view. Teens under the age of 16 require permission from their parents to change any of these settings.
While Instagram has been using AI to determine age for quite some time, social networks are using technology to ensure that teens access Instagram through teenage accounts rather than adult accounts.
The company told TechCrunch last year that it was going to do this, noting that some of the ways to find accounts belonging to teens who have entered fake adult birthdays is to detect Happy Birthday posts and receive reports from other users.
Instagram says it is taking steps to ensure that its technology is accurate and that it places teens correctly in their teenage accounts. However, it offers people the option to change settings if the company makes a mistake.
“The digital world continues to evolve, and we have to evolve with it,” the company wrote in a blog post. “That's why it's important that we work with our parents to ensure that as many teenagers as possible come with their teen accounts.”
Instagram also announced that it will begin sending notifications to parents with teens, including information on how to discuss the importance of providing the right age online. The platform points out that one of the most important ways parents can make sure that teens are in a protected account is to check if their account lists the correct birthdays.
Today's announcement comes two weeks after Meta introduced teen accounts on Facebook and Messenger.
Meta has so far registered at least 54 million teenagers with teen accounts around the world, with 97% of teens aged 13-15 remaining in these protected accounts.