We are living in the age of social media. Over the last decade, several social networking platforms have emerged and all of them are now competing against each other to claim the top spot. Among the most used platforms, Instagram has surely secured its spot. However, for any service to stay relevant in this digital era, it is important to keep on evolving and acting according to users’ feedback.
Instagram surely understands this and over the last few years, has been testing and rolling out various cool features and updates. It looks like the Facebook-owned media sharing platform doesn’t plan on taking a break in this regard anytime soon. Recently, renowned app researcher Jane Manchun Wong tweeted about Instagram making an interesting change to its settings.
As you all already know, an Instagram account is often linked with a Facebook one. Until now, users weren’t required to have their Instagram birthdays synced with their Facebook ones. However, according to Wong's discovery, it will be soon required. She tweeted about this change and also attached a screenshot.
As evident from the tweet, Instagram considers a user’s birthday as an important element for improving features and ads. Additionally, they help in keeping the community safe.
As for modifying birthdays, underage users will not be allowed to make any changes to their currently set birthdays. As for adult users, they will be able to make the necessary changes, as long as they don’t set their date of birth to under 18 years old.
For further assistance, the social media service welcomes its users to contact its support.
Although this change can be considered as a step in the right direction, there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done. For starters, underage users can easily go around the age restrictions and lie about being older. Moreover, Instagram also needs to tackle the issue of publicly displaying the contact information of countless children.
That being said, the recent change indicates that Instagram is surely striving to keep its platform safe and healthy. Stay tuned for potential updates in this story.
Photo: Anatoliy Sizov via Getty Images
Read next: Teens Trying to Become Social Media Influencers Are Compromising Personal Data
Instagram surely understands this and over the last few years, has been testing and rolling out various cool features and updates. It looks like the Facebook-owned media sharing platform doesn’t plan on taking a break in this regard anytime soon. Recently, renowned app researcher Jane Manchun Wong tweeted about Instagram making an interesting change to its settings.
As you all already know, an Instagram account is often linked with a Facebook one. Until now, users weren’t required to have their Instagram birthdays synced with their Facebook ones. However, according to Wong's discovery, it will be soon required. She tweeted about this change and also attached a screenshot.
Instagram will require birthday to be consistent with the linked Facebook account— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) November 14, 2019
Instagram explains they use birthdays to improve features and ads, and to help keeping the community safe
Underage users cannot change birthday. Adult users cannot change birthday to be underage pic.twitter.com/GNZxnA0DqJ
As evident from the tweet, Instagram considers a user’s birthday as an important element for improving features and ads. Additionally, they help in keeping the community safe.
As for modifying birthdays, underage users will not be allowed to make any changes to their currently set birthdays. As for adult users, they will be able to make the necessary changes, as long as they don’t set their date of birth to under 18 years old.
For further assistance, the social media service welcomes its users to contact its support.
Although this change can be considered as a step in the right direction, there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done. For starters, underage users can easily go around the age restrictions and lie about being older. Moreover, Instagram also needs to tackle the issue of publicly displaying the contact information of countless children.
That being said, the recent change indicates that Instagram is surely striving to keep its platform safe and healthy. Stay tuned for potential updates in this story.
Photo: Anatoliy Sizov via Getty Images
Read next: Teens Trying to Become Social Media Influencers Are Compromising Personal Data
