Instagram Is Asking Age Details And Adds More Security Layers In Who Can Message Us

Announced just today was Instagram to ask new users on their birthdates as well as a new update that adds on more filters in receiving messages from strangers.

According to the Terms & Services require users to be at least 13 to join the platform, a regulation that exists in most countries. This is to prevent underage users to join and to ‘keep young people safer and enable more age-appropriate experiences‘. Birthday information, however, can be adjusted to be visible or not to others.

Next, Instagram is also adding the option to receive message requests only from people we’ve followed. This means we don’t have to see the content, which could be inappropriate or even offensive, to block or reject messages.

To be fair, these updates look neat, but they should have been done WAY sooner. Creating an age-appropriate experience is not something that is done down the line, but a must. Instagram is also known to have a very clunky messaging feature. But again, Instagram is a media-sharing platform, not a messaging platform, so we’ll give them that.