Instagram is Adding Age Verification to Protect Minors

Instagram is adding age verification in order to provide a safer online community to the minors. This step is added to ensure that all Instagram users are over the official age limit of 13 years old. 

Age verification measure ensures that going forward, every user will have to enter their date of birth to create a new account. If a user has a connected Facebook account, the date of birth on that platform will be used on Instagram as well, or it can be directly added on Instagram. 

The added birthday will not be visible to a user’s followers like it does on Facebook. Instagram revealed in a blog post that the date of birth will be used to ‘create more tailored experiences, such as education around account controls and recommended privacy settings for young people.

Starting today, we’ll ask for your birthdate when creating an account, and in the coming weeks, we’ll give you more control over who can message you.

This will help us keep young people safer and enable more age-appropriate experiences. Learn more: https://t.co/j7HuSB9Mng pic.twitter.com/8k1cejWal5

— Instagram (@instagram) December 4, 2019

Age verification processes have become quite common in recent years because of the numerous regulations like the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. According to this act, websites, apps, and social media platforms are not allowed to ask children under 13 any personal data without parental consent. But with this new measure, Instagram is excluding everyone under 13 from their platform altogether. 

Instagram is also restricting who can send direct messages to whom. Instagram users can now opt to receive messages and get added to group threads only by the people they follow. This shows that the app is true to its commitment to creating a safer, less pressurized experience for its users.