Shared any birthday photos on social media recently? There better be enough candles on that cake, otherwise your account could be blocked.
Meta, the tech company behind Facebook and Instagram, plans to use artificial intelligence (AI) to find and delete profiles of users under the age of 13. The minimum age for a person to create an account on a social media platform is thirteen years.
“We want young people to have safe, positive experiences online,” began A press release from Meta That’s when it announced the move in early May.
As part of that effort, the company said, it was always looking for ways to find accounts of users who shouldn’t be on the platform yet — but who had signed up with a false date of birth to make them appear old enough.
The press release said the company will use AI technology to analyze entire profiles for relevant clues — such as mentions of birthday celebrations or school grades — to determine if the account potentially belongs to someone underage. “We look for these signals in a variety of formats like posts, comments, bios, and captions.”
The plan to use Meta’s own AI – dubbed “Meta AI” – to root out children under 13 was released days after it was published by the European Commission. Initial conclusion that META had “failed” To prevent minors under the age of 13 from using Instagram and Facebook in the European Union.
Meta AI to see child-like bone structure
Meta said it would use context clues, such as posts about school grades or photos of birthday parties. But its AI will also evaluate factors like height and bone structure of people in photos — a practice some call “invasive.”
Nina Kolleck, a professor of educational and socialization theory at the University of Potsdam, who has written a book called “Battle in the Minds” (so far only available in German) about teenagers on social media, told DW that the meta needs to be “broadened.” [age-based] Data Profile” before it can find and remove users under the minimum age.
“AI needs to learn from data that allows them to draw conclusions about age and behavior,” Kolleck said.
A company spokesperson told DW that Meta does not currently use data from children under 13 to train its AI.
But Andy Przybylski, a professor of human behavior and technology at Britain’s Oxford University, told DW, “It’s a very popular and very wrong idea that by aggressively collecting and processing the data, the faces, the behavior of young people, we can keep them safe.”
“It creates a list of verified ad targets,” Przybylski said.
Age restrictions on social media are controversial
META’s new measure is just the latest development in the ongoing discussion about teens and their social media use.
Australia and Indonesia recently passed laws that ban anyone under the age of 16 from Meta’s platform and other social media networks like TikTok.
In the European Union, countries like Germany, France and Poland are discussing similar measures. But the idea of an age limit is not without its critics.
“There are concrete factors on these platforms that pose a threat to healthy adolescence: endless scrolling, … one-sided recommendations that lead to beauty-focused use and thus self-comparison, or discriminatory content,” said Stefan Dreier, senior researcher in media law and media governance at the Leibniz Institute for Media Research in Germany.
Dreyer told DW that any legal measure should address these features on platforms like Instagram rather than imposing a minimum age on users.
Social media ban like ‘abstinence-only sex education’ for teens
Przybylski believes age restrictions are not the way to go. Instead, Przybylski advocates for privacy legislation that prevents data-collection from children under 18, as well as better media literacy education for youth and their parents.
Not letting teens get close to social media until a certain age is “the same argument as abstinence-only sex education,” Przybylski said. “We don’t even give people driving licenses when they get older – they need to learn things first.”
Even teenagers themselves doubt this concept. on April 2026 Representative survey from UNICEF Germany revealed that 74% of 14 to 16 year olds disapprove of social media restrictions for youth under 16.
UNICEF Germany spokesperson Katja Sodomann said that a significant part of life today takes place on social media, and denying young people access would reduce their right to participate in social life.
“This is especially true for adolescents from vulnerable or minority groups,” he told DW. “Someone with a refugee background may not be able to communicate with friends or family at home without social media. Children who are LGBTQ+ can find community online. Young people with disabilities who are not very mobile can use social media to keep in touch with friends.”
‘I can’t imagine removing meta data’
42-year-old Nadia is the mother of two children in the northern German city of Bremen. Her 12-year-old son is not on social media, but her soon-to-be 15-year-old daughter has an Instagram account.
Nadia is an avid social media user herself, both personally and for work, so she’s in the know when viral trends happen. She does not believe in age-based social media restrictions, saying that media literacy is more important – especially for parents of teens. She doesn’t feel uncomfortable with the idea of meta AI analyzing social media accounts to filter out users under 13.
“I find it extremely problematic,” Nadia said. “Meta is a data hoarder. I can’t imagine they would delete data accumulated like this.”
“AI can pull personal data and use it for purposes that are not obvious to us,” he said. “And it also can’t recognize the profiles of children under 13, because many users keep everything pretty anonymous.”
Meta said it would remove data from users under the age of 13.
What happens if your – or your child’s – account is affected
If Meta AI finds patterns that suggest a user is under the minimum age of 13, their account will be temporarily deactivated.
If a user cannot verify that he or she is over 13 years of age, the account and all associated data are deleted.
Edited by: Zulfikar Abbani