Photo-sharing network Instagram will require new users to provide their date of birth when creating a new account on its platform.
While it already requires people to be at least 13 years old to create an account, Instagram will be asking for a date of birth from new users. According to Reuters, this move will help the company avoid targeting ads at children for age-restricted products.
The information will help Instagram stop adult-focused advertisements from being displayed to children, including those for gambling, alcohol and birth control.
However, Instagram denied that the change was because of advertising. In a blog post, the company stated: "Asking for this information will help prevent underage people from joining Instagram, help us keep young people safer and enable more age-appropriate experiences overall."
"We will use the birthday information you share with us to create more tailored experiences, such as education around account controls and recommended privacy settings for young people," Instagram added.
The company also said that it would encourage young users in the coming weeks to turn on more privacy settings. Vishal Shah, Instagram's head of product, said: "Understanding how old people are is quite important to the work we're doing, not only to create age-appropriate experiences but to live up to our longstanding rule to not allow access to young people."
Existing members will not be required to provide their age to avoid intrusion and Instagram will also not verify the date of birth information provided by new users. Child-protection charity NSPCC criticized the plan saying: "Asking users to provide an unverifiable date of birth will do nothing in practice to protect children from harmful or age-inappropriate content."
"Forthcoming regulation will force platforms to go further and will require them to take steps to proactively apply additional protections to children's accounts by default. But first and foremost the emphasis has to be on ensuring that platforms are safe in the first place for children to use," NSPCC added.
