How Meta wants to profile 13-year-olds on Insta, Facebook

Shared any birthday photos on social media recently? There had better be enough candles on that cake, otherwise your account could be blocked.

Meta, the tech company behind Facebook and Instagram, plans to use artificial intelligence (AI) to find and remove the profiles of users under the age of 13 years. Thirteen is the minimum age for a person to create an account on the social media platforms.

"We want young people to have safe, positive experiences online," started a press release from Meta in early May when it announced the move. 

As part of that effort, the company said, it was always looking for ways to find accounts held by users who should not be on the platforms yet — but who signed up with a false birth date to make them seem 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 stated. "We look for these signals across various formats, like posts, comments, bios, and captions."

Meta's plans to use its own AI — called "Meta AI" — to root out under-13s was released a few days after the European Commission published preliminary findings that Meta had failed "to prevent minors under 13 from using Instagram and Facebook" in the European Union. 

Meta AI to look for child-like bone structure

Meta said it would use context clues, like posts about school grades or photos of birthday parties. But its AI will also evaluate factors like height and bone structure of people in photos — a practice which some call "invasive."

Nina Kolleck, a professor of educational and socialization theory at Potsdam University who wrote a book about teens on social media called "Battle in the minds" (so far only available in German), told DW that Meta would have to create "extensive [age-based] data profiles" before it could find and remove users under 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 the age of 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 one new development in an ongoing discussion about teens and their social media use.

Australia and Indonesia recently passed laws that ban anyone under the age of 16 from Meta's platforms and other social media networks like TikTok. 

In the EU, countries like Germany, France and Poland are discussing similar measures. But the idea of age limits is not without its critics. 

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 tackle these characteristics on platforms like Instagram instead of imposing a minimum age on users.

Social media ban for teens like 'abstinence-only sex education' 

Przybylski believes that age restrictions are not the way to go. Instead, he advocates for privacy legislation that prevents data-collection from under-18-year-olds, as well as for better media literacy education for youths 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 skeptical of the concept as well. An April 2026 representative poll from UNICEF Germany showed that 74% of 14- to 16-year-olds reject a social media ban for youth under the age of 16.

UNICEF Germany spokesperson Katja Sodomann said a significant part of life today takes place on social media, and that denying youth access would curtail 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 mom 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, privately and for work, so she's aware of viral trends when they happen. She doesn't believe in age-based social media bans, saying media literacy is more important — especially for parents of teens. She doesn't feel uncomfortable with the idea of Meta AI analyzing social media accounts to filter out users younger than 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," she 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 finds patterns that suggest a user is under 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