Instagram users will now need to give birth date

INSTAGRAM will require all users to provide their date of birth as part of new safety measures to boost child protection.

The rule comes days before tech giants must conform to greater safeguards introduced by the UK’S Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which has already pushed Google and Tiktok to make changes.

Since December 2019, new account holders have been asked to provide their birth date during set-up, but existing users will now be compelled to do the same.

A notification that can be dismissed will appear a “handful of times” when opening the app at first, before a full-screen prompt will make it impossible to access the service without entering details.

Addressing concerns that children would lie about their age, Instagram said it is developing systems, such as using artificial intelligence to estimate how old people are, based on birthday posts.

The social media platform does not allow anyone under the age of 13 to join.

“We’ve been clear we want to do more to create safer, more private experiences for young people,” said Pavni Diwanji, vice president of youth products at Facebook.

“To do that we need to know how old everybody is on Instagram, so we’ve started asking people to share their birthday with us if they haven’t shared it previously.”

Google recently announced a raft of privacy changes for children who use its search engine and Youtube platform, while Tiktok said it is limiting the direct messaging abilities of accounts belonging to 16- and 17-year-olds.

The deadline for complying with the ICO’S Age Appropriate Design Code ends tomorrow, which comprises 15 standards that digital firms must uphold.