Michael JohnsonA teen who entered an adult birth date when signing up may still receive IG’s protective settings for teen accounts: on November 9, Meta announced a global expansion of a system that uses account signals to estimate a user’s likely age. The company also said it had begun using an age range shared by Apple when an app is downloaded in Australia, if a family has selected the relevant device setting. Meta’s announcement describes both changes.
Who the expansion affects
Meta says it is now expanding age-estimation technology worldwide and expects millions more teens on IG to receive built-in protections. These settings limit who can contact a teen, what content they see, and how much time they spend in the app. The company is also continuing to roll out the system on Facebook and plans to begin deploying similar technology for Threads later in 2026.
The announcement describes a global expansion of the system on IG, its ongoing rollout on Facebook, and a future launch for Threads. These are separate stages: Meta does not say that checks are already complete for every user or enabled across all apps at the same time.
How the system identifies teen accounts
According to Meta, the system identifies accounts that may belong to teens even if the profile lists an adult birth date, and moves them into Teen Accounts. The company calls this technology age estimation; its announcement does not provide a complete list of signals or their weighting. The publication therefore explains the system’s purpose, but not exactly how it estimates the age of a specific account.
In the US, parents will begin receiving an IG notification during November explaining the approach and offering tips on how to make sure their teen’s age is listed correctly. Meta describes the notification as a way to inform families, separate from the automated identification of accounts.
What’s new in Australia
A separate change involves sharing an age range from Apple’s ecosystem. According to Meta, a parent can set up a teen’s smartphone so that the app store confirms the user’s age and assigns an age range. When an app is downloaded, Apple shares that range with the developer, such as Meta, to help verify compliance with age requirements.
Meta said it had already begun using this signal in Australia as an additional way to determine age. Apple’s documentation describes sharing an age range through an API, including the option for parents and users to allow it to be shared. Meta’s announcement says this signal applies specifically to Australia.
In other words, two sources of information are described: the platform’s own age estimation and an age range that a user or family can share through Apple. Meta presents Apple’s signal as an additional input and its own technology as a way to identify accounts with an incorrectly listed age and supplement the information already available.
What this means for users and parents
For teens, the main practical consequence is that IG may apply Teen Account settings even if the profile’s birth date indicates that the user is an adult. Meta says US parents will receive an explanation of the approach through a video in their IG feed during November. In Australia, sharing an age range depends on the family’s settings and choice.
A useful step for families is to check that the age on a teen’s account is correct and look out for Meta’s promised notification in the US. In Australia, it is also worth checking Apple’s age-range sharing settings. The global expansion of age estimation within IG and the Australian Apple signal are related but separate changes.
Meta also argues that a single verified signal from devices, made available to apps, would be more effective and better protect privacy than each platform checking age separately. This is the company’s position: its announcement describes the intended benefits of this approach but provides no comparative measurements of its accuracy.
The takeaway for IG users: the company is expanding the automatic application of teen settings beyond accounts whose birth dates explicitly indicate an age under 18. In Australia, an optional Apple age signal has been added to the platform’s own estimation; parents should bear in mind that this option depends on device settings and family choice.
