Meta will analyze users’ bone structure to determine age

WWith the aim of reinforcing control over minors on its platforms, especially users under the age of 13, Meta, Mark Zuckerberg’s company, expanded an artificial intelligence system to the European Union capable of identifying teenagers’ profiles, even when they declare themselves to be adults.

The technology estimates the user’s age by analyzing the context of the profile, such as birthday posts or references to school, in addition to using visual analysis in photos and videos to identify signs that do not just appear in the text.

Now, Meta goes further. Within this visual analysis, the company began implementing a new way of detecting users under the age of 13 on Instagram and Facebook, based on physical characteristics, such as bone structure and height of the people appearing in the images.

“Our AI relies on general characteristics and visual clues, such as height or bone structure, to estimate a person’s approximate age,” explained the company in a post on the official blog. The tool has already started to be tested in some countries, including the United States, before a global expansion.

Meta highlighted, however, that the system does not use facial recognition, as it “does not identify the specific person in the image”.

Instead, the analysis considers general physical aspects, such as body proportions and height, to estimate age range.

If the profile presents characteristics compatible with someone under 13 years of age, the company crosses this information with other signals, such as published content and behavior on the platform, to decide whether the account should be deactivated or adapted to the rules for minors.