- By Alex David
- Tue, 22 Apr 2025 04:48 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Instagram has announced that it is testing a new AI-powered tool designed to detect teen users who pretend to be adults on the platform. This move is part of Meta’s broader effort to create a safer online space for younger users and limit their exposure to adult content and interactions. The AI tool analyses user behaviour, activity patterns, and other signals to identify when someone may be falsifying their age. Once flagged, the account could be reviewed or restricted accordingly. With growing concerns around online safety, especially for teens, Instagram’s latest step shows its commitment to responsible platform use. While still in the testing phase, this feature could soon play a key role in protecting underage users from inappropriate content and interactions.
Meta has integrated an AI for supervised age-associated categorisation, enabling users to be tagged as adults or teenagers.
Instagram Operating System sent out a notification for their new feature “Instagram Teen” accounts on April 21, claiming it will automatically place any tagged as teenagers or adult-labelled accounts into teen help and filters.
Adult labelled accounts will also fall under the rules of this oversight. The company remarked. This newly proposed categorisation will be tested exclusively within the borders of United States.
In a note Instagram stated it has been utilising under observation designed for delineating specific demographic groups AI for quite a while now. Applying on a social networking platform is a new frontier for them. These controls have been put in place due to concerns that social networking platforms are having detrimental impacts on the mental health and holistic health of younger users. A growing number of states in America have now legislated social networking sites with a requirement to authenticate user accounts.
Contrastingly, Australia a year ago became the first country to implement a blanket ban on social media access for those under the age of 16.
How It Works?
When an Instagram account user is flagged as being underage as per the AI tool, the account will become an Instagram Teen Account automatically.
In a blog post last year, Meta stated that it developed an AI model that works specifically as an adult classifier. It can estimate the age of an account holder with several indicators including the kind of content the account engages with, the date the account was created, and other profile details.
Spokespeople for Instagram indicate, “We're building technology so we can be correct in placing teens whom we identify into protective, age-appropriate settings. But if we make a mistake, we are offering the ability for those identified to adjust their boundaries.”
Other than the automatic identification of underage accounts, Instagram noted that it will notify parents warning them of teens advising why it is important for the child to correctly fill in the age box.
Determining the age of internet users is one of the mysteries businesses have not been able to solve. We will do our best to ensure that adolescents are offered appropriate age-related digital interactions like Teen Accounts, but the easiest way to determine someone’s age is through their parents consenting and verifying provided information at the app store program,” the organization remarked.
What is Teen Instagram Account?
Launched last year, Instagram Teen Accounts now comes with preset restrictions on who can contact teenagers as well as moderation of their interaction with the application. “These protective measures are automatically set for teenagers but for those aged 16 and under, there has to parental or guardian consent to these changes being made,” the company stated.
The default setting for an Instagram Teen Account is private which means users can only receive direct messages from people with a follower that they have added. Also restricted under the company policies are sensitive content which includes people fighting and videos depicting promotional surgery.
Should a user spend over an hour on the application, they will receive an alert encouraging them to take a rest. Additionally, sleep mode will be set from 10 pm to 7 pm during which all notifications and direct messages are silenced and auto replies are issued.
As noted on Monday, Instagram has onboarded more than 54 million teens globally onto these Teen Accounts. The sole requirement is that a person must be over 13 to create an account. The platform claimed that over 97% of teenagers ranging from 13 to 15 have enabled these protective settings.