Instagram to require users to share their birthday: Report

Social media platform Instagram will soon require users to share their birthday with the platform, according to a report by TechCrunch. The move is seen as a way to create a safe and private space for users under the age of 18. <br><br>The report said that pop-ups will be displayed to users who haven’t shared their birthdate with the platform, and they won’t be able to proceed until they fill in their birthdate. <br><br>However, there is no way to verify whether the birthdate being shared is true or not. <br><br>Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, told the publication that the platform will be relying on the users to tell the truth. <br><br>“If someone writes down the wrong date of birth, we can't verify that. It's not our responsibility to verify that. But that's okay because basically what we're trying to do here is build a system that gives us signal that the person is either under the age of 18 or over the age of 18. And the only way we have to do that is to ask them for their birthday. That's a binary signal. You're either under the age of 18 or you're over the age of 18. It's not a perfect signal. But it's the best signal we have to make a distinction between the two.” <br><br>As of now, when a user signs up to the platform, they are asked to share their birthdate, but it’s not mandatory. <br><br>The platform aims to create a safe space for people under 18 with features like age verification.