Meta will begin using AI to scan photos and videos for visual clues to see if a user is under 13 and should be removed from Facebook or Instagram, the company announced Tuesday. These visual cues include a person’s height and bone structure.
“To be clear, this is not facial recognition,” Meta explained in a blog post. “Our AI looks at common themes and visual clues, such as height and bone structure, to estimate someone’s general age. It does not identify a specific person in an image. By combining these visual insights with text and interaction analysis, we can significantly increase the number of underage accounts we identify and remove.”
Mehta said the visual analytics system is currently operational in some countries, but the company is working on a broader rollout.
Meta says the system is part of its efforts to keep children under 13 off its platform. These efforts include using AI to analyze entire profiles for contextual clues, such as mentions of birthday celebrations or school grades. The company looks for these signals across a variety of formats, including posts, comments, profiles, and captions. Meta plans to extend this technology to more parts of the app in the future, including Instagram Live and Facebook Groups.
If Meta determines that a User may be a minor, the Account will be deactivated and the User will be required to prove their age using the Company’s age verification process to avoid account deletion.
The announcement comes weeks after a New Mexico jury ordered Mehta to pay $375 million in civil penalties for misleading consumers about the safety of its platform and endangering children. The company was also ordered to implement fundamental changes to its platform. Mehta has since threatened to shut down social media services in the state.
It’s worth noting that this lawsuit is one of many that Mehta and other Big Tech companies are facing over child safety.
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Meta also announced Tuesday that it is expanding its technology on Instagram, which automatically assigns teens to stricter “teen accounts,” to 27 countries in the European Union and Brazil. These teen accounts impose a more stringent account experience on users with additional safeguards, such as only receiving DMs from people they follow or are already connected to, hiding harmful comments, and setting their accounts to private by default.
Additionally, Meta announced that it is expanding the technology to Facebook in the US for the first time, and to the UK and EU in June.
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