Instagram: why it will be mandatory to share the anniversary date with the application

Instagram has become one of the most important social networks in the world, due to the interactivity it offers to its users, based on the publication of photos and videos within the platform. This is because when someone mentions the word photo or image, it is inevitable to immediately think of this Facebook owned application.

However, as in any large social network, the dangers, especially for minors, are not foreign to InstagramTherefore, in recent months, this company has decided to put in place tools and options to take care of its “little” users.

For example, at the end of last July, this application announced that any teenager under the age of 16 who creates an account within his platform you will start your experience with a default private profile.

“Eight out of ten young people accepted the default private settings during registration,” explained Instagram, recalling that, as a way to democratize the experience of adolescents in the app, anyone over the age of 13 will be able to change their account settings to make it public.

“For young people who already have a public account on Instagram, we will show them a notification outlining the benefits of a private account and explaining how to change their privacy settings. We will continue to offer young people the option of switching to a public account or keeping their public checking account if they wish.», Adds the company.

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On the other hand, in March, the security and privacy of this population were also bet, through the restriction of direct messages between adults and adolescents. Yes indeed, no adult will be able to send a message to a minor, if he does not follow him.

“For example, when an adult tries to message a teenager who is not following, they receive a notification that sending a message is not an option.”

Following this route, this August 30, Instagram announced that it will ask all its users for their birthdays, in order to know the age of all the people registered on this platform and thus have exact data on the number of adolescents who use this social network.

“First, we’ll start asking you for your birthday when you open Instagram. We will show you a notification several times and if you have not provided us with your date of birth by some time, you will have to share it to continue using Instagram. This information is necessary for the new functions that we are developing to protect young people, ”Instagram warned in a statement.

Likewise, to ensure that people share their date of birth at all costs, Instagram will also run a spam class in their posts, place a screen over images or videos with a message asking the person for their birthday before they can view the post.

“These screens are not new and we are already showing them in posts that may be responsive or graphical, but currently we don’t ask for their birthday when we see these posts,” Instagram explained. Of course, these types of messages will not be displayed if the person has already indicated their birthday before.

Finally, and knowing that many adolescents can lie about their age so as not to feel that their freedom is “restricted”, Instagram assured that it is already working on an Artificial Intelligence (AI) that will help discover liars within its platform:

“In the future, if someone tells us that they are past a certain age and our technology tells us otherwise, we will show them a menu of options to verify their age. This work is still in its early stages and we hope to share more soon “

In conclusion, Instagram seeks to protect minors as much as possible within its platform, and understands that this is something it must do for itself, because many times the youngest are unable to take care of themselves on the web.

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