Instagram Will Require Users to Provide Their Birthday

Instagram really, really wants to know your birthday so going forward it will now require all users to share their birthday with the company, according to a post from the Facebook-owned social media site on Aug. 26. The app update is meant to pave the way for new safety features aimed at younger users so if you haven’t already informed it of your birthday, Instagram will start to ask you for that information when you open the app. You’ll receive a handful of reminder notifications, according to Instagram, but if you haven’t provided your birthday by a certain point, you won’t be able to use the app.

Instagram plans to use birthday information to restrict advertiser targeting options for users under 18 years of age, as well as requiring age confirmation before viewing posts that might be sensitive or graphic. The service, which first began asking about birthdays in 2019, says it recognizes that users might try to falsify information. 

The company also says it will use artificial intelligence to detect when a user may have provided a false birthday, and that some users may be asked to “verify” their age. “In the future, if someone tells us they’re above a certain age, and our technology tells us otherwise, we’ll show them a menu of options to verify their age,” the company says. “This work is still in the early stages, and we look forward to sharing more soon.”

The changes are the latest as Instagram has tried to beef up security and privacy features for its youngest users. The company has also said it will switch to making younger teens’ accounts private by default and has limited advertisers’ ability to target the demographic. It also recently introduced features to prevent adult strangers from messaging teens. Instagram has also said it’s in the early stages of thinking about a version of its service for users under the age of 13, which has prompted concern from lawmakers and other officials.