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Meta announced this Tuesday (5) that it will use artificial intelligence to analyze photos and videos of Instagram and Facebook users in search of visual signs indicating if the person is under 13 years old, according to G1. The system evaluates characteristics such as height and bone structure, in addition to scanning texts from posts, comments, and bios for mentions of birthdays and school grades. The novelty arrives in Brazil, the United States, and the European Union. The company states that the technology does not perform facial recognition.
Instagram and Facebook will start analyzing users’ bone structure and height in photos and videos to try to identify who is underage in Brazil, and Meta’s decision places the country among the first in the world to receive an age verification system based on artificial intelligence applied to body images. The technology scans visual clues that text cannot capture and estimates the general age of the account owner, according to a company statement.
If the AI concludes that the account belongs to someone under 13, the profile will be automatically deactivated. The user will have to send proof of age to avoid permanent deletion. Meta justifies the measure by saying that knowing someone’s age online “is a complex, industry-wide challenge,” especially since many minors provide false birth dates when creating a social network account. The company’s response is to replace reliance on self-declaration with automated analysis of physical characteristics.
How artificial intelligence analyzes users’ bone structure
Meta’s system operates on two simultaneous fronts. The first is visual: the AI scans photos and videos published on the profile for clues about the person’s age, analyzing what the company describes as “general themes and visual clues, for example, height or bone structure.” The second is textual: the system searches posts, comments, bios, and captions for mentions of birthdays, school grades, and other contextual indicators that the user is a minor.
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Meta stated that this technology “allows our AI to scan photos and videos for visual clues about a person’s age that text may not pick up.” The analysis extends to additional parts of the platforms, including Instagram Reels, Instagram Live, and Facebook groups, expanding the scan’s reach beyond static posts. The combination of visual and textual analysis creates a detection net that makes it difficult for minors who lied about their age during registration to remain on the platform.
What changes for users in Brazil
For the average Brazilian user, the change is invisible: there is no mandatory selfie, no document to send, and no facial recognition. Meta insists that the system does not identify who the person is, it only estimates the age range based on generic physical characteristics, an important technical distinction that separates the technology from biometric systems like those used by banks and airports.
The impact becomes real when the AI concludes that the account owner is under 13 years old. In this case, the profile is deactivated, and the user receives a notification with a deadline to send proof of age — a document or parental consent — to prove otherwise. Those who do not provide proof within the deadline will have their account deleted. For families with teenagers in Brazil, this means that children who created a profile with a false age may wake up to a blocked account without prior notice.
The difference between age analysis and facial recognition
Meta makes a point of separating its technology from facial recognition, a topic that generates global controversy. Facial recognition identifies who a person is by comparing their face with a database of identities. Meta‘s age analysis, according to the company, does not perform this identification: it does not know the name, does not compare with photos of other people, and does not store individual biometric data. What it does is estimate whether the visible physical characteristics in the images are compatible with someone under 13 years old.
The distinction is legally relevant. In Brazil, the Digital ECA — approved in December 2025 — determines that minors under 16 must have their social media accounts linked to their parents’ accounts, and platforms are required to implement verification mechanisms. Other networks like Roblox, Discord, and YouTube have already adopted verification with a selfie or document, an approach that Meta avoids with AI analysis, opting for a less invasive method that nonetheless raises its own questions about accuracy and potential errors.
The doubts the system raises
Meta‘s technology solves a real problem — minors on unsupervised platforms — but creates others. The first doubt is accuracy: 12-year-old adolescents with accelerated physical development may appear older to the AI, and short adults or those with youthful characteristics may be erroneously classified as minors. Meta has not disclosed the success rate, error rate, or details of the AI model used.
The second doubt is about privacy. Even without facial recognition, the system analyzes the bodily characteristics of all users who publish photos and videos, which means that the AI is evaluating the bodies of millions of people without explicit consent for this specific purpose. In Brazil, the LGPD (General Data Protection Law) classifies biometric data as sensitive, and the analysis of bone structure and height can be interpreted as biometric data processing, which would require specific user consent.
The global context of pressure on platforms
Meta‘s decision does not happen in a vacuum: it is a response to a global wave of regulation aimed at protecting minors online. In the United States, states like California, Utah, and Texas have passed laws requiring age verification on digital platforms. In the European Union, the Digital Services Act imposes similar obligations. In Brazil, the Digital ECA is the legal framework that pressures social media networks to act.
The pressure also comes from lawsuits and public opinion. Internal Meta documents, leaked in 2021 by a whistleblower, showed that the company was aware of Instagram’s negative effects on adolescents’ mental health and did little to mitigate them. Since then, scrutiny over how platforms handle minors has intensified, and AI-based age verification is the company‘s latest response to a years-long reputation crisis.
Do you think it’s right for Instagram and Facebook to analyze users’ bone structure to verify age, or is this an invasion of privacy disguised as protection? Tell us in the comments if you have minor children on social media and what you think about Meta automatically deactivating accounts in Brazil.
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