Meta has agreed to strengthen age-verification measures for young users as part of an $18 billion legal settlement with US states over allegations that its social media platforms were designed to encourage addictive use among children. The agreement covers platforms including Facebook and Instagram and requires the company to take additional steps to identify users under 18, with particular attention to children below the age of 13.

Meta's existing policy prohibits children under 13 from using Facebook and Instagram, while teenagers can use the platforms subject to certain restrictions. The company has acknowledged that some younger users provide false birth dates when creating accounts. Until now, Meta has generally relied on contextual signals, such as birthday posts and references to school grades, rather than routinely requiring users to provide government identification to establish their age.

Under the settlement announced on August 26, Meta will introduce stronger measures aimed at identifying young users. However, the agreement does not require the company to adopt strict methods such as mandatory photo-ID checks or video selfies. For accounts suspected of belonging to children under 13, Meta will take additional measures, including examining their friend networks to identify other potentially underage accounts.

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The settlement will also make it easier for users to report accounts they believe belong to children. An independent auditor will be allowed to review Meta's efforts to determine whether the company is adequately implementing its age-assurance measures. Meta will also be permitted to temporarily use certain data generated by children it identifies to train an artificial intelligence model designed to improve the detection of under-13 users in the future.

Stricter age verification faces legal and privacy challenges in the United States. The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, restricts companies from collecting personal information from children under 13 without parental consent. Meta and other technology companies have argued that the law can make reliable age verification difficult because methods such as identity documents and biometric information involve collecting sensitive personal data.

The settlement follows a broader debate over how technology companies can verify users' ages while protecting children's privacy. The Federal Trade Commission said in February that it would not take enforcement action against companies collecting personal information solely to determine a user's age through age-verification technologies, although legal experts have noted that this does not prevent individual US states from pursuing COPPA-related claims. The agreement therefore seeks to strengthen protections for young users while keeping Meta's age-assurance practices within existing federal privacy restrictions.

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