Meta is expanding the AI it uses to find suspected teens on Instagram to every country, according to its Nov. 9 newsroom post. Teens it flags are placed into Teen Account protections, "even if they use an adult birthday." Meta says "millions more teens" will now get those protections on Instagram.

What changes for a teen or parent

Teen Accounts on Instagram, Facebook and Messenger come with built-in protections. Meta says they automatically limit who can contact teens, the content they see, and their time on the apps.

Those protections depend on knowing a user's age. Meta says some teens may misrepresent their age online. Its answer is AI technology that looks for people it suspects are teens, even if they signed up with an adult birthday, and moves them into the protections. Meta says it has been placing more teens in age-appropriate protections since it first introduced the technology and is "encouraged by the results." Today it is taking that technology global.

For an Instagram teen account, the practical change is that an adult birthday may no longer keep an account out of those protections. For parents, Meta says this means it is making "proactive efforts" to place a teen in the right protections no matter where they live.

Who gets moved

The post says the system targets people Meta "suspects" to be teens. That includes accounts set up with an adult birthday. It does not say how many accounts will move, or in which countries, beyond "across the world."

Platform timeline

Mashable reports that Meta began using AI to detect teens on Instagram in April 2025, including teens who signed up with an adult age.

  • Instagram: the expansion is announced as of today.
  • Facebook: Meta says it is "continuing to roll this technology out." It gives no date.
  • Threads: Meta says that "later this year" it will begin launching similar technology globally.

Instagram age verification: how Meta checks age

Meta describes a multi-layered age assurance approach. In Australia, it says it has begun using Apple's age-range signal "as another method to help understand age." When a parent sets up a phone for their teen, they can opt in to the app store confirming the user's age and assigning an age range. Each time the teen downloads an app, Apple passes that range to the developer, confirming whether the teen meets the app's age requirement.

The Verge also reports that Teen Account settings cannot be changed by users 16 or younger without a parent's or guardian's permission, and that the system is also used to remove accounts believed to belong to under-13s. Meta's post itself does not spell those two points out.

Meta says it uses the Apple signal voluntarily. It argues teens will get inconsistent protections while collecting and sharing the signal stays optional for app stores and using it stays optional for developers. It supports legislation requiring age verification and parental consent in the app store. It also says its own age estimation can act as a backstop to help correct mistakes and feed them back to the app store.

Meta also says that this month, parents in the United States will begin to see an in-feed video on Instagram explaining its approach. The video links to an article by internet safety advocate Larry Magid, which is open to parents worldwide.

What Meta does not say

The post does not give:

  • Any appeal or correction steps for an adult placed in Teen Account protections by mistake.
  • A list of countries.
  • A count beyond "millions more teens."
  • How accurate the AI is. Its post does not list the signals; the report above says they include the profiles and content a user interacts with and birthday messages they receive.
  • A date for the Facebook rollout.

Meta says the work builds on its recent agreement with 52 bipartisan attorneys general to strengthen how it identifies teens and children under 13. Under that agreement, it says, it is investing in stronger technology to catch accounts that may belong to children under 13, and strengthening the technology for accounts that may belong to 13-to-17-year-olds.

What this means for you

If you have a teen on Instagram, protections can apply even if they signed up as an adult, if Meta suspects they are a teen. If you are an adult who gets flagged, Meta's post offers no way to challenge it.

Related

For another company's teen limits, see OpenAI limiting weapons information for teens in ChatGPT. For other recent Instagram changes, see Instagram's free Edits video editor for Mac. More is in Mobile.