Meta, owner of social media platforms Facebook and Instagram, is introducing AI-powered age assurance technology to curb underage use of its platforms.

The technology analyses entire profiles for context clues, such as birthday celebrations or mentions of school year, to determine if a user is under the age requirement of 13. Meta said the technology looks for these signals across a variety of formats, including posts, comments, bios and captions, and plans to expand them to other offerings such as Instagram Reels, Instagram Live and Facebook Groups.

Additionally, Meta said it is introducing AI-powered visual picture analysis to aid this process, which it said can looks for visual clues that may be missed by textual analysis. It stressed that this is not facial recognition technology, but rather looks for general themes and cues including height and bone structure.

It is also making it easier for users to report underage accounts both in its apps and help centre. To support handling of these reports, Meta said it is supplementing its human review teams with AI models that apply consistent criteria to every report. It added that in internal testing, AI-driven review delivered higher accuracy and faster resolutions than human review alone.

If accounts are determined to be potentially underage, Meta will suspend them. The user will then be required to provide proof of age through its age verification process or face account deletion.

Many of these tools will be available worldwide, but certain features, including visual analysis, are currently only available in select countries.

In late April, the European Commission found that Meta may be in breach of its Digital Services Act by failing to adequately prevent children under the age of 13 from accessing its platforms.

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