Instagram Starts AI Trial in Canada to Protect Teen Users

Instagram has announced it is starting to test new AI technology in Canada and the US to proactively find accounts that belong to teens to place them in the Teen Account settings category.

Earlier this year, Meta announced Teen Accounts, a curated experience made for teenage users as well as parents with built-in restrictions. As an additional measure to help protect younger users, Instagram is starting to use AI to determine the user’s age even if the account lists an adult birthday.

As of September 17, Meta has begun automatically placing teens into the Teen Accounts on Instagram. Anyone under 16 will need a parent’s permission to change their account settings. Parents are able to manage and monitor restrictions. For instance, users under 16 years old need to accept new followers. Those who don’t follow the account are unable to see the content or interact with it. Teens are also given more strict messaging settings and are given 60-minute daily time limits by default.

Meta is said to be taking proactive measures to ensure the AI technology being used to identify teen accounts is accurate. If a mistake has been made, users have the option to change their settings.

The company is also said to be working with parents to help protect teen accounts. Starting today, notifications are being sent to parents on Instagram regarding important conversations they can have with their teens. These tips are designed to help address the topic of providing the correct age online and not falsifying information in the hope of being classified as an adult.

Meta states that as of September, at least 54 million active teen accounts are on Instagram globally. Of that number, 97 percent are said to be in the 13-15 year range.