Instagram will now ask you to share your birthdate to keep you safe

Instagram will now ask you to share your birthdate to keep you safe
(Source: Unsplash.com)

Remember when the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, became a popular internet meme because Facebook is known to remember everyone’s birthdays? Well, another social media platform he owns will soon be asking you for your date of birth as well. 

As per Philstarlife.com, Instagram will begin asking users to share their birthdates with the app as part of the company’s efforts to create a safer experience for teens. This means that if you haven’t shared your birthday with the app yet, you should expect the notification sooner than later. 

“We’ll show you a notification a handful of times and if you haven’t provided us with your birthday by a certain point, you’ll need to share it to continue using Instagram,” the company said.

Even if you dismiss the initial prompt, you’ll experience some changes while using the app. How exactly? Well, if Instagram doesn’t have your birthday, it’ll ask you again and again. Then, your posts will be marked as ‘sensitive.’ Basically, these types of posts show up blurred on your feed, and if you want to view them, you have to give in and give your date of birth. Looks like there’s no way out, right? 

In case you’re looking to share the wrong date though, guess what? The company is currently developing a system using artificial intelligence to estimate how old people are based on “happy birthday” posts.


Aside from rolling out the Shop tab internationally recently, Instagram announced that it’s working on a version of the app that’s for users younger than 13 years old. Given all the shady people there are all over the internet, it’s just right that Instagram is pulling out all the stops to help keep its users safe.

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