Meta is expanding its artificial intelligence age-estimation technology globally on Instagram, in a move it says will place millions more teenagers into Teen Account protections. The company announced the expansion on 9 November 2026.

The system looks for accounts Meta suspects belong to teenagers aged 13 to 17 and moves them into Teen Account settings, even if the person entered an adult birthday when signing up. Meta says the change closes a loophole that has allowed some teenagers to avoid the stricter protections built for younger users.

What Teen Accounts do

Teen Accounts automatically limit who can contact a teenager, the content they see and the time they spend on the app. Accounts are private by default, direct messages are restricted to people the teenager follows or is already connected to, and harmful comments are hidden. Teenagers under 16 need a parent's permission to loosen the settings.

Meta says the technology analyses signals such as the profiles and posts an account interacts with, along with birthday messages and mentions of school grades, to estimate an age range. The company says the system does not identify individuals in photos.

Rollout so far

The age-estimation system had previously been tested in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, and then extended to the 27 European Union countries and Brazil. With the latest announcement, it now applies to Instagram users worldwide.

Meta said it is continuing to roll out the technology on Facebook and plans a similar global launch on Threads later in 2026. In Australia, the company has also begun using Apple's age-range signal as an additional check. Parents in the United States will start seeing an in-feed Instagram video this month explaining how teenagers are placed into age-appropriate protections.

Legal pressure behind the move

The expansion comes as Meta faces lawsuits alleging its platforms harm young users. It follows the company's settlement with 52 bipartisan US state attorneys general, worth up to 18 billion dollars according to TechCrunch's reporting, which gave Meta a year to put an age-assurance framework in place.

Meta says it is also strengthening the technology it uses to identify accounts that may belong to children under 13, who are not permitted to hold Instagram or Facebook accounts. The company has not published accuracy or error rates for its age estimates, or a date by which the global rollout will be complete. For parents, the practical effect is that a teenager who entered a false birthday is now far more likely to be placed in the restricted Teen Account experience automatically, rather than only if a parent reports the account.