Instagram using AI to see if you lie about your birthday

Facebook-owned Instagram is making it mandatory to let the company know your birthday as part of an action to increase safety and privacy for younger users. The company has earlier asked users for their birthday but now you will have to give it when you open Instagram.

“We’ll show you a notification a handful of times and if you haven’t provided us with your birthday by a certain point, you’ll need to share it to continue using Instagram. This information is necessary for new features we’re developing to protect young people”, the company said in a blog post.

WShen users see warning screens on posts, giving your birthday will be needed if you want to see the post.

“These screens aren’t new, and we already show them on posts that may be sensitive or graphic, but we don’t currently ask for your birthday when viewing these posts. Now, we’ll start asking for your birthday on some of these screens if you haven’t shared it with us previously.”

If users give a fake birthday, Instagram is developing a new system trying to find out if you don’t tell the truth.

We’re using artificial intelligence to estimate how old people are based on things like “Happy Birthday” posts. In the future, if someone tells us they’re above a certain age, and our technology tells us otherwise, we’ll show them a menu of options to verify their age. This work is still in the early stages, and we look forward to sharing more soon.”

“This information allows us to create new safety features for young people, and helps ensure we provide the right experiences to the right age group.” The company has earlier made changes preventing adults from sending messages to people under 18 who don’t follow them, and new accounts belonging to people under the age of 16 are default on a private setting.