Popular photo-sharing platform Instagram is tightening the noose around users violating the rules. The company is now asking users to share their birth dates. This is being done to make the platform secure and safer for younger audiences. Instagram faced criticism over safety measures for children. The company said that asking about birth dates will help it to enforce child safety measures and check the age group audiences using the platform.
Instagram has plans to allow users to create new safety features for young audiences. The measures will ensure that the right experiences are provided to the right age group people. Instagram’s top executive Pavni Diwanji in a blog post said that the objective is to create safer and more private experiences for users, especially young people.
The blog post said that asking the birth date will let Instagram understand how old everybody is on the platform. Those who have not shared their birth date with Instagram previously will now require sharing the same with the company. Based on the birth date, Instagram will allow users to personalize their experience. For instance, Instagram said that users can apply changes for audiences below 18 years of age or others.
The company, however, noted that it started asking users’ birth dates a few years ago. The company’s record has birthdays for most users. Once the inputs are received from users who have not provided the birth date, the company will get a complete picture. It will soon introduce two new changes for users who have not shared the same.
Instagram said that it will first ask such users their birthday when they go to the platform to access their account. It will show a notification. The notification will be shown to them several times. If such users fail to provide their birth date by a certain point, Instagram could restrict access. At that point, such users will be asked to compulsorily share their birth dates to continue accessing their accounts.
Instagram added that the information is a must for new features that the product team is developing to protect the privacy and offer a private experience to young people. Instagram said that it will also show warning screens placed on posts, asking users to share their birth date before seeing the post. The company is also designing new systems to recognize if people have shared incorrect information.
Paul is an American-based writer covering Latest business trends. Paul cover Business and media for many news sites. He has been breaking news and writing features on these topics for major publications since 2012. Paul prefers writing about business news keeping science and technology into perspective.
