By Angela Palumbo

Meta Platforms is updating the artificial intelligence technology it uses to verify the age of its users as child safety becomes an even greater focus for social media companies and investors.

Meta announced on Tuesday that it is expanding AI tech that was originally announced last year to further enforce age verification on its social media platforms. This AI is used to find accounts that are suspected to be run by teenagers, even if the user listed an adult birthday. The AI can then place Teen Account protections onto those accounts, which are default safety setting for users that restrict messaging and other activities on the platforms.

"We successfully launched this technology on Instagram in the US, Australia, Canada, and the UK -- placing millions of accounts into these age-appropriate protections," Meta said. "Now we are expanding our use of this technology to 27 countries in the EU and Brazil." Meta also said it is expanding to Facebook in the U.S. for the first time, followed by the U.K. and the EU in June.

Meta -- which requires users to be at least 13 years old to use Instagram and Facebook -- also said on Tuesday that it's now adding visual analysis as a new technique in select countries to help detect these underage accounts. This technology allows the AI to scan photos and videos for visual clues about a person's age.

Meta added that starting this month, it will begin sending notifications to parents in the U.S. on Facebook and Instagram with information about how to check and confirm their teens' ages on those apps.

These updates come after a Los Angeles jury found in March that Meta and Alphabet's YouTube contributed to mental-health issues of a young woman during her childhood and teenage years because of the addictive nature of their products. A Meta spokesperson told Barron's at the time that "we respectfully disagree with the verdict and will appeal," and that "teen mental health is profoundly complex and cannot be linked to a single app."

Concerns about child and teen safety related to social media use are nothing new. Roblox, an online gaming platform widely popular among younger people, has faced backlash when it comes to how safe it is for its core demographic. The company recently implemented changes to push back on the narrative that it's not safe for younger users. In January, it began requiring users to undergo an age-estimation process if they want to use the platform's communications features.

Roblox stock fell 18% on May 1 after the company reported disappointing daily active user growth. The company said that growth was "tempered by greater-than-expected headwinds from our age-check roll out, which restricted on-platform communication for non-age checked users, diluted communication for age-checked users, and slowed new user acquisition."

It's unlikely Meta stock will suffer a similar fate as the company continues to expand its safety features. That's mostly because Roblox's key demographic is kids under 17, while Facebook and Instagram target an older audience.

Roblox also makes most of its revenue from people spending in the game, and Barron's has recently reported that players who use chat spend as much as seven times more on the platform than those who don't chat, according to data from Roblox gaming analytics company Gamebeast. So fewer daily users means fewer dollars spent. Meanwhile, Meta makes most of its revenue from advertising.

Meta declined to respond to a Barron's request for comment on potential impacts these new safety updates could have on user growth.

Meta isn't out of hot water yet. A bench trial kicked off in New Mexico on Monday after Meta was ordered to pay a $375 million penalty in March. New Mexico sued the company under a consumer protection law claiming that Meta misled children and parents when it marketed Facebook and Instagram as safe environments for minors. The New Mexico Department of Justice is now arguing at the bench trial that Meta's actions amount to a public nuisance.

Write to Angela Palumbo at angela.palumbo@dowjones.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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May 05, 2026 07:00 ET (11:00 GMT)

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