Instagram asking your birthday? This is why, know more about it here

Have you logged into Instagram lately and been asked to furnish your date of birth? Fret not, as this is something every Instagram user is facing right now. Instagram is on an age-verification spree at the moment wherein the objective is to prevent minors below the age of 13 years to stop accessing the social media platform. This may, however, not be the case of you ahem already done that on Facebook.

Instagram had already announced previously that it would make age-verification mandatory on its platform; and now it has started to do the same. Hence, when you open Instagram, you are likely to see a message on the lines of, “Before you can continue using Instagram, you need to provide your birthday, even if this account is for something like a business or pet. This helps us protect younger people in our community. We'll also use your birthday to help personalise your experience, including ads. It won't be part of your public profile.”

Instagram brings new verification process

Note that the process cannot be bypassed and if you are unable to furnish the details, you won’t be able to use the app. Moreover, if someone tries to provide wrong DOB details, Instagram’s AI algorithms will scan for the data on the account and verify whether it is correct or wrong.

“We look at things like people wishing you a happy birthday and the age written in those messages, for example, 'Happy 21st Bday!' or 'Happy Quinceañera.' We also look at the age you shared with us on Facebook and apply it to our other apps where you have linked your accounts and vice versa — so if you share your birthday with us on Facebook, we'll use the same for your linked account on Instagram,” said Instagram.

The last bit sounds weird and it remains to be seen how an AI system can verify someone’s age from the comments. What if someone publishes the correct date and Instagram picks up wrong comments to prevent the person from logging in again?

Nonetheless, we hope things go well with users on the platform in a smooth way. On other other hand, Instagram is also testing a new video feed feature more akin to TikTok’s wherein the videos and Reels pages be more focused on the video experience rather sticking to Instagram’s usual aspect ratio.