Instagram will soon kick you off the app if you don’t cough up your birthday

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For the few of you out there that have been able to avoid giving Instagram your birthday, it looks like you’ll finally have to give it up soon. The platform has announced that will start actively asking users to enter their birthdays if they haven’t yet, and you could eventually be forced off of the platform if you don’t comply.

In a press release earlier this week, the company announced its plans to more aggressively pursue the birthdays of users who have been able to fly under the radar until now.

The company originally began requiring people to give birthdays when creating new accounts in 2019, but some older accounts have apparently been getting by without adding their own birthdays to their accounts.

That’s going to change soon. Instagram will start asking these users for their birthdays whenever they open up the app. You’ll be able to ignore it for a while, but eventually, you’ll have to add your birthday to the account to continue to use the app.

Taking things a step further, Instagram touched on the idea that users may give the wrong birthday when asked. The company explained how it will be using AI to help gather information on how old people are.

Information like birthday posts or congratulatory comments can be analyzed to help determine your age, so lying about it probably won’t work too well.

This is all part of an effort to make the platform safer for younger people on the internet. The company has already said it is working on a version of Instagram designed for kids under 13 and it recently made improvements that stop adults from messaging minors that aren’t following them.

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