Meta recently announced that it will use artificial intelligence technology to identify the real age of Instagram users, especially those who claim to be teenagers. The move aims to improve the safety and protection of teenagers’ accounts and address the impact of social media on teenagers’ mental health, which is increasingly publicly concerned. Meta launched an account designed for teenagers aged 13 to 17 in September, but its effectiveness relies on users’ honest filling in age information. To solve this problem, Meta has developed a tool called "Adult Classifier", which is planned to be launched next year to determine the user's real age by analyzing user profiles, interactive content and fan lists.
Recently, Meta announced that it would use artificial intelligence to predict the age of Instagram users, especially those who call themselves "teenagers" who will automatically transfer them to their teenage accounts if the system suspects they are lying. The decision came amid strong public opposition to the impact of social media on teenagers’ mental health, with Meta launching a new account designed for teenagers aged 13 to 17 in September.
These teen accounts have many built-in restrictions, such as who can contact them, what content can be seen, etc. In addition, the system will automatically hide comments and message requests that may be offensive. But the problem is that these secure accounts are only valid if teenagers use voluntarily or fill in their age honestly. So Meta came up with a way to ensure the correct account allocation. They developed a proprietary software tool called "Adult Classifier" that is planned to go online next year, aiming to divide users into two groups: 18 and 18 years old.
According to Alison Hartnett, Meta's director of product management, the tool will scan users' profiles, the content they interact with, and their fan lists to determine their true age. Even some seemingly harmless "Happy Birthday" messages can be clues to identify the user's age.
According to Meta's own 2019 research, social media applications such as Instagram may have negative effects on the mental health of teenagers. To address this, Meta plans to start migrating teenagers who voluntarily provide age information to new teen accounts as soon as possible and launch this “adult classifier” earlier next year.
The measure is Meta's latest effort to fix the public's impact on its platform in the mental health of adolescents. As early as 2021, a report by the Wall Street Journal revealed Meta's internal report, showing that it understands Instagram is harmful to the mental health of teenagers, especially girls. “We make one-third of teenage girls even more painful about body image issues,” said a sentence from a slide from Meta’s internal report in 2019.
Meta's move is designed to better protect teenagers, but the technology has also sparked discussions about privacy and data security. In the future, the actual effects and potential problems of "adult classifiers" deserve continuous attention. Balancing user security and privacy protection will be a long-term challenge facing Meta.