On November 9, Meta announced a global expansion of the AI system Instagram uses to estimate whether an account belongs to a teenager. The system can apply Teen Account settings even when the birth date on the account indicates an adult. The settings change what content can be recommended to people placed in Teen Accounts and who can start a conversation with them.
What is expanding on Instagram
Teen Accounts are accounts to which Instagram automatically applies protective settings. In June 2025, Meta confirmed that this experience had reached every country where Instagram was available. The November change concerns how Instagram identifies accounts that should receive the settings, including accounts where the birth date supplied at sign-up differs from the age estimated by the platform.
Meta began testing the technology in the United States in April 2025 to move accounts it suspected belonged to teenagers into the Teen Account configuration. In September 2025, the company expanded testing to the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. The new announcement attributes the global expansion to Instagram. Meta says the rollout of the technology on Facebook is continuing, and it plans to start introducing similar technology on Threads later in 2026.
Meta expects the expansion to apply protections to millions more teenagers on Instagram. The company also ties the expansion to commitments it made to 52 attorneys general across US states and territories and the District of Columbia. Meta treats identifying children under 13 and placing people aged 13 to 17 in age-appropriate experiences as separate tasks.
Where age estimation is expanding
- InstagramMeta announced the global expansion.
- FacebookThe rollout of the technology continues.
- ThreadsMeta plans to start introducing similar technology later in 2026.
What changes for content and interactions
Teen Account settings cover recommendations, messages, mentions and time spent on the app. Under the messaging configuration Instagram describes, a teenager can receive messages from people they follow or are already connected to. Meta also says tagging and mentions are limited to people the teenager follows. These rules define the conditions under which an account that publishes content or manages a community can contact a user in this setting.
Instagram defaults to private accounts for all teenagers under 16 and for those under 18 when they sign up, under the conditions Meta describes. New followers need approval on a private account. Teens under 16 need a parent's permission to use less restrictive protections. Meta has also applied that requirement to using live broadcasts or turning off the protection that blurs images suspected of containing nudity in messages.
The default settings also include a notification after 60 minutes of use in a day. The sleep mode Instagram describes mutes notifications between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. and sends automatic replies to direct messages. Through the separate supervision feature, a parent can set a daily access limit. That limit stops access once the threshold is reached, while the default notification reminds the user to take a break.
On content, Meta began expanding the default 13+ setting for Teen Accounts globally across Instagram, Facebook and Messenger in June 2026. The setting filters certain material from the teen experience. Meta also describes a stricter setting on Instagram called Limited Content. The options represent different levels of protection for the account experience. For instance, under the Limited Content configuration Meta describes, teens cannot view or post comments.
In its description of the 13+ setting on Facebook, Meta says it is designed to hide certain material in Feed and Reels. Interactions can also be restricted with pages, profiles, groups or events that mainly post material deemed inappropriate for teenagers. On Messenger, the setting described by the company limits access to links to such Facebook material. These examples concern content filters, which have their own rollout timetable.
The November expansion increases the number of accounts to which Meta aims to apply these rules. For content managers, the distinction is visible in the types of interactions allowed and the material Instagram can show to those users. Meta describes recommendation filters and contact restrictions as separate controls. A post that a user can see does not change the conditions under which that user can receive a message.
The US notification and the signal used in Australia
Meta said parents in the United States will start seeing a video in their Instagram feed in November. It explains how the company applies the protections and why an accurate date of birth matters. The video points to an explanation by Larry Magid, the CEO of ConnectSafely. Meta says parents in other countries can also read the article. The feed notification and access to the article therefore have different availability.
In Australia, Meta has begun using the age range supplied through Apple's system as an additional signal. The company describes a case in which, while setting up the device, a parent opts to have the app store confirm the user's age range. When an app is downloaded, Apple can share the range with its developer, which can use it to check the app's age requirement.
The Apple signal described for Australia comes from the app store. Meta performs the estimation announced for Instagram and uses it to apply Teen Account settings. The announcement presents the two as sources of information with different availability. On Instagram, applying the settings after classification affects both the content a teenager sees and the contacts the platform allows for the account.
