Instagram uses AI to crack down on teens pretending to be adults

Instagram has begun testing artificial intelligence (AI)-powered technology in the United States to determine if children are lying about their ages on the app.

The Meta-owned platform announced on Monday that it has been using AI to help determine users’ age ranges “for some time,” but it will “proactively find accounts we suspect belong to teens,” even if the account lists an adult birthday.

The company said it will place the accounts in question under the ‘Teen Account’ settings introduced last year.

Teen Accounts are for anyone under 18 and have more restrictions than adult accounts: they are private by default; private messages are restricted to people they follow; and “sensitive content,” such as videos of people fighting or those promoting cosmetic procedures, is limited.

“We’re taking steps to ensure our technology is accurate and that we are correctly placing teens we identify into protective, age-appropriate settings,” Meta said in a blog post.

“In case we make a mistake, we’re giving people the option to change their settings.”

Early this month, Meta rolled out Teen Accounts to Facebook and Messenger amid sustained concerns – and numerous lawsuits – in the U.S. and the E.U. about the effects of social media use on children’s well-being.

Meta, alongside other social media companies like ByteDance's TikTok and Google's YouTube, already face hundreds of lawsuits filed on behalf of children and school districts about the addictive nature of social media.