People will need to update their birthday info to keep using Instagram, Facebook says

To create “safer, more private experiences for young people,” Facebook said today that it will need people to update their birthday information to keep using Instagram.

It’s been a while since Facebook started its plans to create an Instagram for kids under 13. While this “new experience” hasn’t become a reality, the company is creating safety tools to ensure Instagram provides “the right experiences to the right age group.”

For example, in March, Instagram announced that adults couldn’t send messages to people under 18 who don’t follow them, and in July, Facebook started to default new accounts belonging to people under the age of 16 into a private setting.

Now, Facebook says that if you haven’t already shared your birthday information with Instagram, when you open the app, you’ll see a notification a handful of times to provide this data. If you do not, Facebook says you won’t be able to continue using Instagram.

If you haven’t provided us with your birthday by a certain point, you’ll need to share it to continue using Instagram. This information is necessary for new features we’re developing to protect young people.

Facebook says that it will also add warning screens placed on posts asking for your birthday before you can see it.

These screens aren’t new, and we already show them on posts that may be sensitive or graphic, but we don’t currently ask for your birthday when viewing these posts. Now, we’ll start asking for your birthday on some of these screens if you haven’t shared it with us previously.

Facebook clarifies that as some people may want to give the company their wrong birthday data, so it’s developing new systems to address this.

As we shared recently, we’re using artificial intelligence to estimate how old people are based on things like “Happy Birthday” posts. In the future, if someone tells us they’re above a certain age, and our technology tells us otherwise, we’ll show them a menu of options to verify their age. This work is still in the early stages, and we look forward to sharing more soon.

What do you think about Facebook asking for your birthday information on Instagram to keep using the social network app?

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.