Meta Deploys AI to Scan Photos for Height and Bone Structure to Identify Underage Users
Key Takeaways
- ▸Meta is deploying AI-powered visual analysis to identify underage users by detecting physical traits like height and bone structure, combined with text and interaction analysis
- ▸The system is currently in select countries with plans to expand globally and to new platforms like Instagram Live and Facebook Groups
- ▸The move comes amid mounting regulatory pressure on child safety, including a $375 million penalty and ongoing litigation, and coincides with expansion of stricter "Teen Accounts" across multiple regions
Summary
Meta announced Tuesday that it is deploying an AI system to analyze photos and videos for visual indicators of age—including height and bone structure—to identify and remove users under 13 from Facebook and Instagram. The company emphasized that this is not facial recognition technology, but rather a visual analysis system that detects general physical traits; it combines these visual insights with text analysis and user interaction patterns to estimate age and identify underage accounts.
The system is currently operating in select countries with plans for broader rollout. If Meta's AI determines a user may be underage, the account is deactivated and the user must verify their age through the company's age verification process or face permanent deletion. This announcement is part of Meta's expanding toolkit for child safety, which also includes analyzing profiles for contextual clues like birthday celebrations and school grade mentions across posts, comments, bios, and captions.
The announcement comes just weeks after a New Mexico jury ordered Meta to pay $375 million in civil penalties for misleading consumers about platform safety and putting children at risk. Alongside the age detection system, Meta is expanding its "Teen Accounts" feature—which includes stricter privacy controls like limiting direct messages and defaulting accounts to private—to 27 countries in the EU and Brazil, and launching it on Facebook in the US, UK, and EU for the first time.
