Instagram and Facebook have a problem with underage users — there are too many of them. Their parent company, Meta, is looking to eliminate under-13s by using an age-profiling AI. This ties into the ongoing debate around banning social media for teenagers.
Have you recently posted any birthday pictures on social media? If so, you’d better hope there are enough candles on that cake, or your account might get blocked.
Meta, the tech company that owns Facebook and Instagram, intends to employ artificial intelligence (AI) to detect and delete profiles belonging to users under the age of 13. Thirteen is the minimum age required to create an account on these social media platforms.
“We want young people to have safe, positive experiences online,” stated a Meta press release in early May when it announced the initiative.
As part of that effort, the company noted, it was continuously seeking ways to identify accounts held by users who should not yet be on the platforms — but who registered using a false birth date to appear old enough.
The company will be “using AI technology to analyze entire profiles for contextual clues — such as birthday celebrations or mentions of school grades — to determine if an account likely belongs to someone underage,” the press release said. “We look for these signals across various formats, like posts, comments, bios, and captions.”
Meta’s plans to deploy its own AI — called “Meta AI” — to root out under-13s were announced a few days after the European Commission released preliminary findings that Meta had failed “to prevent minors under 13 from using Instagram and Facebook” in the European Union.
Meta AI to examine child-like bone structure
Meta stated it would rely on contextual clues, such as posts about school grades or photos of birthday parties. However, its AI will also assess factors like the height and bone structure of people in images — a practice some consider “invasive.”
Nina Kolleck, a professor of educational and socialization theory at Potsdam University who authored a book about teens on social media titled “Battle in the minds” (currently available only in German), told DW that Meta would need to create “extensive [age-based] data profiles” before it could identify and remove users below the minimum age.
“AIs need to learn from data that allow them to draw conclusions about age and behavior,” Kolleck said.
Social media bans: What it means for you
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A company spokesperson told DW that Meta does not currently use data from children under 13 to train its AI.
But Andy Przybylski, a professor of human behavior and technology at Oxford University, UK, told DW: “It is a very popular and a very wrong idea that by invasively collecting and processing the data, the faces, the behaviors of young people, we can keep them safe.”
“What this does is create a list of verified advertising targets,” said Przybylski.
Social media age restrictions are contentious
Meta’s new measure is just the latest development in an ongoing debate about teenagers and their social media habits.
Australia and Indonesia recently enacted laws banning anyone under 16 from Meta’s platforms and other social media networks like TikTok.
In the EU, countries such as Germany, France, and Poland are considering similar measures. However, the concept of age limits is not without its detractors.
France debates social media ban for teenagers
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“There are concrete factors on these platforms that pose a risk to a healthy adolescence: endless scrolling … one-sided recommendations that lead to beauty-focused usage and thus self-comparison or discriminating content,” said Stephan Dreyer, senior researcher for media law and media governance at the Leibniz Institute for Media Research in Germany.
Dreyer told DW that any legal measures should address these characteristics on platforms like Instagram rather than imposing a minimum age on users.
Social media ban for teens like ‘abstinence-only sex education’
Przybylski believes that age restrictions are not the right approach. Instead, he supports privacy legislation that prevents data collection from individuals under 18, as well as better media literacy education for young people and their parents.
Not allowing teens near social media until a set age is “the same logic as abstinence-only sex education,” Przybylski said. “We also don’t give people a driver’s license when they turn an age — they need to learn things first.”
Teens themselves are also skeptical of the idea. An April 2026 representative poll from UNICEF Germany showed that 74% of 14- to 16-year-olds oppose a social media ban for youth under 16.
UNICEF Germany spokesperson Katja Sodomann said a significant part of life today happens on social media, and that denying young people access would limit their right to participate in social life.
“That’s especially true for teens from vulnerable or minority groups,” she told DW. “Someone with a refugee background might not be able to communicate with friends or family back home without social media. Children who are LGBTQ+ might find community online. Youths with disabilities who aren’t very mobile can use social media to stay in touch with friends.”
‘I can’t imagine Meta will delete the data’
Nadia, 42, is a mother of two in the northern German city of Bremen. Her 12-year-old son is not on social media, but her soon-to-be 15-year-old daughter has an Instagram account.
Nadia is an avid social media user herself, both privately and for work, so she is aware of viral trends as they emerge. She does not think age-based social media bans are a good idea, arguing that media literacy is more important — especially for parents of teens. She is also uncomfortable with the idea of Meta AI analyzing social media accounts to filter out users under 13.
“I find it highly problematic,” Nadia said. “Meta is a data hoarder. I can’t imagine they’ll delete the data they’ll accumulate this way.”
“The AI can pull personal data and use it for purposes that aren’t clear to us,” Nadia’s daughter, Merle, said. “And it might not even recognize profiles of under-13-year-olds, because many users keep everything very anonymous.”
Meta said it would delete data from users under 13.
What happens if your — or your child’s — account is affected
If Meta AI detects patterns suggesting a user is below the minimum age of 13, the account will be temporarily deactivated.
The account and all associated data are deleted if a user cannot verify they are over 13 years of age.
Edited by: Zulfikar Abbany