Meta announced Tuesday, May 5, 2026, that it will use artificial intelligence to automatically remove users who appear to be under 13 [1].
This move comes as the company faces heightened scrutiny from Congress and state courts regarding the presence of underage children on its services. By automating the detection process, Meta aims to improve child safety and comply with stricter regulatory expectations.
The new system will operate across Meta's social-media platforms globally [2]. According to reports, the technology involves visual analysis, including the examination of height and bone structure, to identify whether a user is underage [3]. This visual-analysis system is already operating in select countries as part of a broader rollout [2].
Meta is the parent company of Facebook and Instagram [1]. The company said that the AI tools are designed to enforce existing age-restriction policies more effectively by identifying users who do not meet the minimum age threshold of 13 [4].
Under the new protocol, the AI will flag accounts that appear to belong to children below the age limit. Once the system determines a user is under 13 [4], the platform will automatically remove the account to prevent further access. This transition from manual reporting to AI-driven enforcement marks a shift in how the company manages its user base.
The deployment of these tools is a direct response to ongoing legal challenges and public pressure to protect minors from social media exposure [5]. While the company has long maintained a minimum age requirement, the difficulty of verifying age at scale has historically left the platforms vulnerable to underage usage.
“Meta announced it will use artificial intelligence to automatically remove users who appear to be under 13.”
Meta's shift toward biometric AI analysis represents an escalation in age-verification efforts. By moving beyond self-reported birthdates to bone structure and height analysis, the company is attempting to close a long-standing enforcement gap. This strategy may reduce the number of underage users but could trigger new privacy debates regarding the collection of biological data from minors.
