Instagram is finally taking a vital step towards protecting underage children f on social media. Users will soon need to disclose their age before they can sign up for Instagram.
The safety of young audience members has been the central priority for the platform for a while, however, now there is action being taken in order to create a safe environment for all ages.
According to TechCrunch “. . . Instagram had fallen far behind in protecting underage users. It’s relied on ignorance about users’ ages to avoid a $40,000 fine per violation of the Child Online Privacy Protection Act that bans services from collecting personal info from children younger than 13.”
Users under the age 13 will not be allowed to join, as per the usual longstanding policy users must be at least 13 to have an Instagram account.
This will allow Instagram to create age-appropriate experiences for a younger community.
Gradually, Instagram will explore additional changes using birthday information; for example by recommending young people enable more private settings.
Instagram will also be adding the option to only allow people you follow to message you, add you to a group or reply to your Story.
It will be interesting to see what other measures Instagram takes on board towards the safety of its users, especially going into the new year.
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Photo Credits: Instagram.