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| When you open the app Instagram asks for your birthday |
Instagram will encourage users to share their birthdays through the service if they have not already done so. The company announced that it will now display notifications asking you to add a birth date to personalize your experience. However, a notification can only be rejected a few times before it becomes a request.
The company said the move was part of its larger goal of creating new security features for younger users.
These include Data Protection for Youth that launched earlier this year, as well as long-term plans to roll out a version of its service for users under the age of 13.
In March of this year, the platform introduced new features that make it difficult for adults to connect with teens through its app.
Then in July, the company announced a major change to the default settings for new users under the age of 16.
By default, these users' accounts are now private and limited to suggesting their accounts elsewhere in the app.
It also now prohibits adults whose accounts have been flagged as potentially suspicious from contacting other minors or interacting with their posts.
Starting this week, the platform announced that users who have not yet shared their birthday will see pop-up notifications when they open the app.
These notifications appeared multiple times. However, in some cases, users cannot ignore the message by clicking Not now.
Instead, everyone is invited to announce their birthday in order to continue using the platform.
When you open the app, Instagram asks for your birthday
Now, when you come across a message with a warning screen, the company asks you to share your birthday information as well.
Although, those hidden screens marked as sensitive are nothing new. However, the platform does not ask for the user's birthday in advance before displaying the hidden content.
Kids have been known to lie on these registration forms to bypass app login restrictions.
In response, the platform has developed artificial intelligence to identify accounts that may contain incorrect birth dates.
For example, the platform can infer a person's date of birth based on comments in a birthday message which can indicate a user's age.
The company also hinted at other plans in this area, noting that if Facebook technology determines, based on other signals, that the age reported by a user does not match the actual age, it will force users to specify their age.
According to Instagram, the technology is still in its infancy. But it does come with a list of options that will allow someone to check their age.
Age remains an important data point for ad targeting. While the platform limits the ability of marketers to use data of interest or their activity in other apps to target teens, it still allows ads to be targeted based on the age, gender, and age of the site across all age groups.