SURREY, B.C. - Meta is expanding its AI age-estimation technology around the world so millions more teens are placed into Teen Account protections on Instagram, even if they signed up with an adult birthday, in a move Surrey parents will welcome.
Meta announced the expansion on November 9, 2026. The company is continuing the rollout on Facebook and, later this year, will begin using similar technology globally on Threads.
Teen Accounts on Instagram, Facebook and Messenger come with built-in protections that automatically limit who can contact teens, the content they see, and the time they spend on the apps. The age-estimation technology is designed to catch teens who entered an adult birthday when they created an account, and move them into those protections anyway.
This month, parents in the United States will begin to see an in-feed Instagram video explaining the approach, linking to an article by Larry Magid, internet safety advocate and President and CEO of ConnectSafely. In Australia, Meta has begun using Apple’s age-range signal to help identify teens.
The expansion builds on Meta’s agreement with 52 bipartisan attorneys general to strengthen how it identifies teens and children under 13. Meta says it is also investing in stronger technology to catch accounts that may belong to children under 13, and it is calling on TikTok and YouTube to adopt similar practices.
For Surrey families, the change matters because Instagram and Facebook are where many local teens spend their time online, and where parents often worry about who can message their children and what content reaches them. Age-appropriate protections that work without requiring government ID checks or extra steps from parents lower the barrier to safer accounts, and catching teens who used an adult birthday closes one of the easiest ways around the existing safeguards.
Parents in Surrey can already check whether their teen’s Instagram or Facebook account is set up as a Teen Account, and use the parental supervision tools to see time limits and contact settings. The global rollout means more of those accounts will be placed into the protected settings automatically, rather than relying on the birthday entered at sign-up.
Meta is the company behind Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Threads. Its Teen Accounts program, launched in 2024, places users under 18 into accounts with stricter default privacy settings, limits on who can message them, and content and time controls. The company has faced sustained pressure from regulators and attorneys general in the United States to do more to verify the ages of young users and to keep children under 13 off its platforms.
ConnectSafely is a U.S. non-profit focused on internet safety for children and families. Its president and CEO, Larry Magid, is a longtime advocate for age-appropriate online experiences, and his article is the one Meta is pointing parents to in the new in-feed video.
Surrey parents who want to check their teen’s settings can open the supervision tools in Instagram or Facebook, where Teen Account status and time limits are shown. The global expansion is rolling out now, with Threads to follow later this year.
(Source: Meta, November 9, 2026)
