How Meta wants to profile 13-year-olds on Insta, Facebook

Published 7 June 2026 · tech

Instagram and Facebook have a problem with underage users — there's too many of them. Parent company, Meta, aims to root out under-13s with an

Instagram and Facebook have a problem with underage users — there's too many of them. Parent company, Meta, aims to root out under-13s with an age-profiling AI. This plays into a debate about a teenage social media ban. Shared any birthday photos on social media recently? There had better be enough candles on that cake, otherwise your account could be blocked. Meta, the tech company behind Facebook and Instagram, plans to use artificial intelligence (AI) to find and remove the profiles of users under the age of 13 years. Thirteen is the minimum age for a person to create an account on the social media platforms. "We want young people to have safe, positive experiences online," started a press release from Meta in early May when it announced the move. As part of that effort, the company said, it was always looking for ways to find accounts held by users who should not be on the platforms yet — but who signed up with a false birth date to make them seem old enough. The company will be "using AI technology to analyze entire profiles for contextual clues — such as birthday celebrations or mentions of school grades — to determine if an account likely belongs to someone underage," the press release stated. "We look for these signals across various formats, like posts, comments, bios, and captions." Meta's plans to use its own AI — called "Meta AI" — to root out under-13s was released a few days after the European Commission published preliminary findings that Meta had failed "to prevent minors under 13 from using Instagram and Facebook" in the European Union. Meta AI to look for child-like bone structure Meta said it would use context clues, like posts about school grades or photos of birthday parties.

But its AI will also evaluate factors like height and bone structure of people in photos — a practice which some call "invasive." Nina Kolleck, a professor of educational and socialization theory at Potsdam University who wrote a book about teens on social media called "Battle in the minds" (so far only available in German), told DW that Meta would have to create "extensive [age-based] data profiles" before it could find and remove users under the minimum age. "AIs need to learn from data that allow them to draw conclusions about age and behavior," Kolleck said. Social media bans: What it means for you To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video A company spokesperson told DW that Meta does not currently use data from children under the age of 13 to train its AI. But Andy Przybylski, a professor of human behavior and technology at Oxford University, UK, told DW: "It is a very popular and a very wrong idea that by invasively collecting and processing the data, the faces, the behaviors of young people, we can keep them safe." "What this does is create a list of verified targets," said Przybylski. Social media age restrictions are contentious Meta's new measure is just one new development in an ongoing discussion about teens and their social media use. Australia and Indonesia recently passed laws that ban anyone under the age of 16 from Meta's platforms and other social media networks like TikTok. In the EU, countries like Germany, France and Poland are discussing similar measures. But the idea of age limits is not without its critics. France debates social media ban for teenagers To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video "There are concrete factors on these platforms that pose a risk to a healthy adolescence: endless scrolling...