Social Media

Instagram Will Begin Asking for Birthdays to Enforce Age Restrictions



Instagram will begin asking users their birthday starting today, the company announced in a blog post.

Technically only people age 13 and older are allowed on Instagram’s platform, but the app had no way to check or confirm a user’s age until now.

“Asking for this information will help prevent underage people from joining Instagram, help us keep young people safer and enable more age-appropriate experiences overall,” the company wrote.

Users who have signed up for Instagram using their Facebook accounts will automatically see their accounts updated with their birthdays, but the date will not be public information.

This age-checking practice was already standard on rival apps like Snapchat. Enforcing the age limits will now bring Instagram in line with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, which requires operators to protect the privacy of people under 13 online. This year the Federal Trade Commission fined popular video app TikTok a record $5.7 million for COPPA violations. TikTok now requires users to enter their birthday when they sign up.

Facebook — which bought Instagram for $1 billion in 2012 — already disallows users under 13 on its platform, but it seems that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg isn’t such a fan of COPPA. Speaking at an education summit in 2016, he said he believes children under 13 should be allowed on social media platforms for, it seems, educational purposes.

“That will be a fight we take on at some point,” he said during the conference, as reported by Fortune Magazine. “My philosophy is that for education you need to start at a really, really young age.”

Of course, as is common, this method will not be foolproof: Users can easily lie with — it seems — no repercussions. And this new method will not catch parents who set up accounts for their children, although COPPA does make allowances for children’s participation in social media with parental permission.

Instagram also said the new birthday data on all their 1 billion active monthly users will be used “to create more tailored experiences.”

It also appears that Instagram is testing a feature that would allow businesses to restrict what age can view their products, according to app researcher Jane Manchun Wong.

Instagram has not yet responded to a request for comment.

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