Instagram’s new policy requires date of birth when you sign up for a new account

Instagram’s new policy is starting to limit younger users from using the app by only allowing individuals aged 13 and above from having an account. According to the company, this will help them provide more age-appropriate and safer experience to the younger Instagram users.

What this means is that new users who register for an Instagram account will have to provide their date of birth to the social media platform — and you have to be at least 13 years old. However, this can easily be bypassed by faking your age since Instagram doesn’t require age verification methods like providing pictures of your identity card and so on. Your age will also be hidden from others on Instagram.

With your age information, Instagram says that they will tailor the overall app experience accordingly by including “education around account controls and recommended privacy settings for young people”. In addition to that, Instagram is also providing more controls on who can send you direct messages, so you can set to only allow people you follow to message you and add you to group threads. This prevents unknown individuals from sliding into your DMs or replying to your Insta-stories at random.

However, Instagram can also extract your date of birth if your Facebook account is connected to your Instagram account. If you change your date of birth on Facebook, the information will also be changed on Instagram.