Overview
- Meta, which announced the update Tuesday, will scan photos and videos for visual cues like height or bone structure to estimate age and says this is not facial recognition.
- Protections that auto-place likely 13–17-year-olds into Teen Accounts are expanding to 27 EU countries and Brazil on Instagram, with Facebook in the U.S. now and the UK and EU slated for June.
- The system also combs posts, bios, captions, comments, and interactions for clues about age, deactivates suspected under‑13 accounts, and requires ID or Yoti’s facial age estimation to restore access.
- Parents in the U.S. will get in‑app notices with steps to confirm a teen’s age, while early tests and reports highlight gaps, including a 12‑year‑old fooling the tool with a fake mustache and prior findings that Teen Account guardrails missed blocking stranger contact.
- Meta continues to press for app‑store or operating system age checks to centralize verification, as EU enforcers weigh penalties under the Digital Services Act and courts in New Mexico seek product changes.