Instagram to Use AI-Powered Age Detection Tools to Find Teen Accounts Posing as Adults

Instagram is expanding its Teen Accounts setting, which was first rolled out in 2024, with a new proactive technology and parents' reach-out campaigns. Announced on Monday, the Meta-owned social media platform is testing the use of AI-powered age detection tools to identify teenagers on the platform who have added an adult birthday. The company says it will then place these suspected users in Teen Accounts to protect them from potential harassment and abuse on the platform. Alongside, Instagram is also beginning to send notifications to parents to ask them to review the age set on their teenager's account.

Instagram to Proactively Identify Teenagers on Its Platform

In a blog post, the social media platform announced that it had started testing AI tools to detect teenagers using the app. This is not a new move for the company. When Instagram first rolled out Teen Accounts in 2024, it said that it would be using algorithms to look for markers to detect teenagers posing to be adults.

These include user engagements (as teenagers are more likely to interact with and follow more teenagers), and comments where someone wishes them “happy 14th birthday,” while their account says they are 20 years old. With AI, the company is now tightening the ropes to identify teenagers. The AI-powered age detection tools are first being tested in the US.

While Instagram did not reveal how it plans to use AI in age detection, it highlighted that it has been using AI-powered age detection for several years. However, that was done to identify adult and teenager demographics to personalise their experience on the platform (read: showing them age-appropriate ads).

Instagram AI age detection feature
Photo Credit: Instagram

Instagram admits that using the technology in this capacity is a new territory for it, and AI can make mistakes while identifying a user as a teenager. As such, it is offering an option to users to change their settings in case they are wrongly placed in Teen Accounts. However, this raises a question on the effectiveness of the entire method, as teenagers who are posing as adults to escape the restrictions might not prefer to be added to Teen Accounts.

Currently, Instagram users who attempt to change their age from under 18 to above 18 have to complete several steps before the settings can be changed. This includes recording a video selfie, uploading an identification card, or having other users confirm their age. It is likely that suspected teen accounts might have to complete one or all of the verification steps. The company has not confirmed this.

Apart from this, the Meta-owned platform is also sending notifications to parents on Instagram with information on how they can have conversations with their teenagers to provide the correct age while using social media apps. The company said it has worked with pediatric psychologists to curate the tips to have these conversations.