Meta rolls out AI age estimation on Instagram worldwide

According to Jess Weatherbed at The Verge, Meta says it is expanding Instagram's AI age estimation technology worldwide. The expansion is aimed at users aged 13 to 17: when the system determines that an account belongs to a teen who has hidden or misstated their age, Instagram will automatically apply Teen Account protections to that account without requiring the user to do anything. Meta says the rollout is expected to bring Teen Account protections to millions of additional young users who may not have reported their real ages, a group the company has long flagged as a key gap in its safeguards. For now, Meta has only announced the global expansion. No timeline has been published for finishing the rollout, and it remains unclear which regions will get the feature first or how quickly existing Teen Accounts will be re-screened. In a statement shared with The Verge, a Meta spokesperson said the company is confident in the accuracy of the age estimation technology, though external researchers have previously questioned whether such systems can reliably distinguish between users in the 13 to 17 range.