Why knowing age is important
In addition to knowing whether a user is 13 or older and therefore eligible to have an Instagram account, the company needs to know if a user is under 18 or between 13 and 16 so that they can take advantage of age-appropriate privacy and safety settings and be shielded from content and features that may be inappropriate for younger users.
For example, if the service knows a teen is under 16, they will be defaulted into a private account. Users under 18 are protected from unwanted contact by making it harder for potentially suspicious accounts to find young people.
By knowing the age of the user, Instagram is able to provide other protections including:
- Preventing adults not followed by the teen from sending them direct messages
- Notifying teens when an adult who has been exhibiting potentially suspicious behavior is interacting with them in direct messaging
- Not allowing people teens don’t follow to tag or mention them, or include their content in Reels, Remixes or Guides
- Preventing adults who have engaged in suspicious behavior from finding and following teens
- Being sent “take a break” notices
- “Topic nudge” that encourages teens to a different topic if they’re repeatedly looking at the same type of content, regardless of what it is
- The option to turn on (or off) parental supervision tools to enable their parents to help support them in their use of social media.
- Prohibiting advertisers to target ads to people under 18 based on interest and activity on other apps and websites, though it does allow ads to be targeted based on age, gender and location
- Blocking age-gated branded content that is not appropriate for teens, including content about alcohol, subscription services, financial insurance products and services, cosmetic procedures and weight loss.