Wire reporting: (Reuters, via CNA)

Meta said it is expanding Instagram’s artificial-intelligence age-estimation tools worldwide to place more users it believes are 13 to 17 into Teen Accounts even if they signed up with an adult birthday, The Verge, Engadget and TechCrunch reported Monday, citing a company announcement^1,2,3.

The tools already ran in the United States, the European Union and Brazil, those outlets reported^1,2.

The Verge said the system looks at profiles and content users interact with, birthday messages, and visual cues from photos and videos, and that Meta has begun using Apple’s age-range signal in Australia^1,2.

Accounts believed to be under 13 are to be removed; estimated 13-to-17 users are moved onto Teen Accounts that are private by default, limit content and block stranger direct messages, The Verge and Engadget reported^1,2.

Engadget later said Meta told it that bone-structure analysis and clues such as school grades are used to detect and remove people under 13, after an earlier version of its story described those measures more broadly².

TechCrunch said Meta is continuing the technology on Facebook and plans a similar global rollout for Threads later this year^3,2.

Al Jazeera said Instagram expansion starts this month and described extra teen limits including time reminders, night notification muting and a two-hour daily cap⁵.

The Verge put a related August settlement at $17.1 billion; TechCrunch and Al Jazeera described settlements worth up to about $18 billion with U.S. states and territories^1,3,5.

The Verge said Meta had not said whether Facebook’s automatic checks, which it said rolled out to U.S. accounts in May, will expand elsewhere¹.

Accuracy rates, false-positive rates and a full appeal process were not established in the coverage reviewed^1,2,3.