Advertisement

Updated August 31st, 2021 at 23:16 IST

Instagram requires users to provide birthday, AI to detect wrong details; Know more

Instagram announced on Monday that users have to confirm their birthdays before proceeding to any other activity, to make the platform "safe for all".

Reported by: Ajeet Kumar
Instagram
(Image Credit: Unsplash) | Image:self
Advertisement

Instagram announced on Monday that users have to confirm their birthdays before proceeding to any other activity, to make the platform "safe for all". According to the statement released by Instagram, the information entered by the users would allow them to create new safety features for young people, and also, it would help ensure providing the right experiences to the right age group. Citing an example of their recent changes, the platform says it has started to set accounts of people aged under 16 into a private setting. Though this would be the default setting offered by the platform, users can customise according to their interests. It has also prevented adults from sending messages to people under 18 who don’t follow them.

Instagram app would send notifications to update birthday

According to the company's blog post, the recent changes would help users personalise their areas of interest and restrict advertiser targeting options for audiences under 18 to more people. It also helps the platform to show more relevant advertisements to the users. The company said that the changes only apply to people who haven’t already shared their birthdays. The Facebook-owned platform said that the company would send notifications to users daily to remind them to update their birth dates. "First, we’ll start to ask you for your birthday when you open Instagram. 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. This information is necessary for new features we’re developing to protect young people," wrote the company in its blog post. 

AI to detect if someone enters wrong details: Instagram

"Second, if you see warning screens placed on posts, we’ll ask you for your birthday before you can see the post. 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." 

Further, the company said that they knew the users would enter the wrong details in the birthday's section and to tackle this, the company was developing new systems based on artificial intelligence to address the issue. AI would estimate how old people were 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," added the photo-sharing platform.

Image Credit: Souvik Banerjee/Unsplash

Advertisement

Published August 31st, 2021 at 23:16 IST

Your Voice. Now Direct.

Send us your views, we’ll publish them. This section is moderated.

Advertisement
Advertisement

Trending Quicks

Hardik Pandya
a few seconds ago
Congress Press Conference
a few seconds ago
Terrorist Attack At Crocus City Hall, Moscow, Russia
12 minutes ago
Delhi Rains: Hailstorm and Heavy Rains in Gurgaon on Friday, Thunderstorms Predicted Until March 31
22 minutes ago
Russian Volunteer Corps
22 minutes ago
Force Motors' Q2 results
22 minutes ago
Crew
22 minutes ago
Lok Sabha Elections 2024
24 minutes ago
Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir
30 minutes ago
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Whatsapp logo