Instagram to work with AI and parents on Teen Account honesty

Instagram is expanding its Teen Accounts feature, which along with facial age estimation from Yoti is among the social media platform’s proactive efforts to keep young people away from potentially harmful online material.

The Meta subsidiary limits what Teen Accounts can see, who can contact them and how long they can be used in a given time period.

The company says 54 million teens have been enrolled in the age-gated accounts so far, and the same model was recently extended to Facebook and Messenger.

There are still some teens in the platforms general population, however, leading the company to notify parents about the importance of their children supplying the correct age information, and providing them with tips on how to check if they are doing so.

Teens under 16 need parental or guardian approval to make changes to the default protection on Teen Accounts, and Instagram says only 3 percent of those aged 13 to 15 have done so.

“Insta” is also testing a new AI feature that scans the platform to identify likely undeclared teen accounts. Those accounts identified as belonging to teens will be specified as Teen Accounts, regardless of the listed date of birth. The platform has already been using AI to determine the age of its users, the announcement states, but the new use “is a big change.”

“We see this as complementary and additive to the things we are already doing,” Meta Director of Public Policy Helen Charles said while introducing the changes at the recent Global Age Assurance Standards Summit 2025.

Charles warned attendees of the risk of fragmentation in the EU’s approach to age assurance, and also reiterated the company’s support for age checks to be carried out at the operating system level, rather than at the point of access to the platform where potentially harmful material will be encountered.

The company concludes its announcement by repeating the assertion that app stores are the most appropriate venue for age verification.

Instagram’s Teen Accounts feature may have little impact in countries like Spain, where a draft bill near passing into law would make it illegal for social media companies to accept accounts for people under 16 years old, except with parental permission.

Spanish age assurance law approaches final approval

The proposed rules for age assurance in Spain have advanced, with a draft law to require age assurance for access to adult content and raise the eligible age to open an account on any social media platform without parental authorization from 14 to 16 reaching the final stage of approval, Sur in English reports.

The country has been gradually moving towards an age assurance system using Verifiable Credentials (VCs) for limited disclosure.

The draft law includes clauses to make the dissemination of deepfakes illegal, consider falsified age, gender and identity as an aggravating factor in criminal cases and increase the penalties for online crimes, including stalking and grooming.

The preliminary draft las was first introduced in June, 2024.

Article Topics

age verification  |  children  |  face biometrics  |  Instagram  |  Meta  |  regulation  |  social media  |  Spain  |  Yoti