Meta’s AI age-check goes global: Can it protect teens?

What happened: Meta has rolled out AI-powered age-estimation technology worldwide to detect teenage users who signed up with an adult birth date, moving them into restricted Teen Accounts or removing them. Key numbers: Meta agreed to pay up to $18bn in an August out-of-court settlement with 29 US states. Why it matters: Meta links the policy to the multistate lawsuit settlement requiring platform changes to protect minors. Experts including Sonia Livingstone say there is an absence of clear evidence the system works and that it poses a privacy risk to all users.

Meta has rolled out AI-powered age-estimation technology worldwide to detect teenage users who signed up with an adult birth date, moving them into restricted Teen Accounts or removing them.

Meta links the policy to the multistate lawsuit settlement requiring platform changes to protect minors. Experts including Sonia Livingstone say there is an absence of clear evidence the system works and that it poses a privacy risk to all users.