According to Meta's official announcement, Instagram will deploy AI-powered age estimation technology globally to identify suspected adolescent accounts, even if account holders provide adult birth dates. The technology analyzes cues such as birthday celebrations and grade references on personal profiles, along with information from posts, comments, bios, photos, and videos—including visual indicators like height and skeletal structure. Users identified as minors will be enrolled in the Teen Accounts protection framework, which includes restrictions on direct message sources, hiding harmful comments, and default privacy settings.

Meta states that the technology is also being rolled out on Facebook, with Threads set to introduce similar functionality globally later this year; U.S. parents will begin seeing explanatory videos within Instagram's content feed. This expansion follows Meta's settlement with U.S. states and territories over litigation concerning platform harm to minors, with potential settlement amounts reaching up to $18 billion.