- Meta will use AI age prediction software to spot teens who lie about their age
- Move comes after Instagram introduced teen accounts in September
- Meta will automatically move teens to its new accounts
According to a new one Bloomberg reportMeta will use AI to predict the age of its Instagram users and automatically transfer anyone under 18 to a teen account if it thinks they are lying about their age.
In the wake of national outrage over the impact of social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook on teen mental health, Meta introduced teen accounts in September. Teen accounts, for kids ages 13 to 17, have built-in limits on who can contact them and what content they can see. They are automatically set to hide potentially offensive comments and message requests.
Secure accounts for teens will only work if those under 18 use them voluntarily or are honest about their age. That’s why Meta has come up with a way to enforce the correct accounts. The proprietary software tool Meta has developed, called ‘adult classifier’, will be deployed next year and is designed to classify users into two groups: under or over 18 years old. According to Allison Hartnet, Meta’s director of youth product management and social impact, the tool scans a user’s profile, the content they interact with, and their follower list to determine their age. Even innocent “happy birthday” messages can be used to help determine a user’s real age.
Caught
Because teen accounts are new and currently voluntary, there is a large user base of teens on Instagram using regular adult accounts. Meta plans to soon move teens who have volunteered their age information to the new teen accounts and introduce the ‘adult classifier’ early next year.
This move is Meta’s latest attempt to rectify some of the public outrage over social media’s effect on teens. In 2021, a report was published in the Wall Street Journal showed that Meta’s reports indicated it knew Instagram was damaging the mental health of teenagers, especially teenage girls. “We are making body image issues worse for one in three teenage girls,” said a slide from Meta’s own 2019 report.