Instagram to ask about your birthday more often - Know why

Instagram will begin requiring users to confirm their birthdays as part of an effort to create new safety features for young people, the Facebook-owned image-sharing platform said on Monday. Instagram has explored creating a version of its app for children under the age of 13, prompting lawmakers to urge Facebook to drop the plans, saying the social media company "has a clear history of failing to protect children. children on their platforms. " a blog post will use the information to "ensure that we deliver the right experiences to the right age group."

Last month, the company said that users under the age of 16 will be assigned a private account when they join the platform. The app said it will ask users for their birthdays when they open Instagram and then display various pop-up notifications if the user doesn't enter their birthday. At some point, users will need to submit their date of birth to continue using the app, Instagram said. Instagram said this information enables it to create new safety features for young people and helps ensure that Instagram delivers the right experiences to the right age group. Instagram said that while it has birthdays for most people on Instagram, to get a more complete picture, it is introducing two new changes.

"First, we'll start to ask you for your birthday when you open Instagram. We'll show you a notification a handful of times and if you haven't provided us with your birthday by a certain point, you'll need to share it to continue using Instagram. This information is necessary for new features we're developing to protect young people," Instagram said in a blog post. "Second, if you see warning screens placed on posts, we'll ask you for your birthday before you can see the post. These screens aren't new, and we already show them on posts that may be sensitive or graphic, but we don't currently ask for your birthday when viewing these posts," the blog post said.

The changes will only affect Instagram users who have not previously shared their birthday in the app. Instagram added that it was aware that some users might enter a false date of birth and said it was developing new technology to address such problems.