Instagram has announced that it would begin requesting users to provide their birthdate information. These reminders may be ignored at first, but the social media giant intends to make them mandatory if you want to use Instagram in the future. These prompts attempt to determine how old everyone on Instagram is in order to avoid content that is inappropriate for young kids from appearing in their feed. Instagram claims that this information is required for new features it is developing to safeguard young people.
Instagram said in a new blog post that it will begin asking users for their birthdate when they launch the app. This is just for individuals who have not already provided their date of birth information. Instagram will display a message at the top of these users’ feeds a few times, and if they haven’t supplied their birthdate data by a specific point, they will be required to disclose it in order to continue using the app.
Furthermore, if users encounter warning messages on their postings, Instagram will ask for their birthday before revealing the post. Previously, viewers could simply click the ‘See Video’ or ‘See Image’ button at the bottom of the warning to access the hidden content. In the future, all users who haven’t revealed their birthdate will instead receive a ‘Confirm Your Age’ option. These screens aren’t new, and Instagram currently uses them on posts that may contain sensitive or violent content. This new workaround attempts to restrict access to certain content based on age.
All of these measures are being implemented with the goal of making Instagram a safer place for children. Instagram aims to deliver the correct experiences to the proper age group while also blocking some types of content from reaching young people. Instagram recently introduced new features in which it defaulted new accounts belonging to people under the age of 16 to private mode and also prohibited adults from sending messages to people under the age of 18 who do not follow them.
