Meta Now Uses AI to Scan Your Body and Decide If You’re Too Young for Instagram
Meta has taken a striking new step in its fight to keep children off its platforms. The company announced it will deploy Meta AI age detection technology that scans photos and videos for physical cues, including a person’s height and bone structure, to determine whether a user might be under 13 years old.
The move is part of a broader push by Meta to remove underage accounts from Facebook and Instagram before regulators and courts force its hand. The visual analysis system is already running in select countries, with a wider rollout in progress.
Meta was quick to draw a line between this new tool and facial recognition. The company stated that its AI looks at general visual cues like height or bone structure to estimate someone’s general age range, and does not identify the specific person in the image. The system works alongside text and behavioral analysis, scanning posts, captions, bios, and comments for context clues such as birthday mentions or references to school grades.
When Meta AI age detection flags an account as potentially belonging to a minor, the account gets deactivated, and the user must go through Meta’s age verification process to avoid permanent deletion.
The timing of this announcement is hard to separate from Meta’s legal troubles. Just weeks ago, a New Mexico jury ordered Meta to pay $375 million in civil penalties over claims it misled consumers about platform safety and put children at risk. The verdict also required the company to make fundamental changes to how its platforms operate. Meta has since threatened to pull its services from the state entirely. And that case is far from isolated, as Meta and other Big Tech companies continue to face a wave of child safety lawsuits across the country.
Beyond the AI scanning, Meta also announced it is expanding its Teen Accounts feature on Instagram to 27 countries in the EU and Brazil. These accounts place younger users in a stricter experience that includes receiving direct messages only from people they already follow or are connected to, hiding harmful comments, and setting profiles to private by default. Meta confirmed it is also bringing Teen Accounts to Facebook in the United States for the first time, with the UK and EU rollout planned for June.
The company says it intends to expand the Meta AI age detection technology to more areas of its apps in the future, including Instagram Live and Facebook Groups.
