Your date of birth on Instagram: That is why the information is so important

In our “Instagram Guides”, we'll look at Instagram, explain its new and old features, and show you how to get the most out of the platform for your marketing strategy. Today: Your date of birth on Instagram: That's why the information is so important.

At the end of August, Instagram announced in a blog post that it wants to start asking its users to provide their dates of birth.

If you haven’t already saved your birthday in the app, it will soon begin showing you prompts where you can enter your birthday. These notifications will appear at the top of your feed or as a pop-up above your feed.

When you ask for permission to see content labeled as sensitive, Instagram will also ask you to provide your date of birth to confirm your age.

While you can dismiss these a few times, the time will come where you must enter the date. Otherwise, Instagram will block you from further using your account.

How to add your birthday without waiting for prompts

If you want to insert your date of birth right away without waiting for Instagram asking you to do so, here is what you need to do:

1. Open Instagram and navigate to your profile.
2. Tap on the three lines in the right-hand corner at the top of your screen.
3. Tap “Settings” > “Account” > “Personal Information”.

In the Personal Information section, you can see your email address, your phone number, your gender, and your birthday.

If you haven’t already provided the information about your date of birth, type it in and save the information. Instagram will not show your birthday on your profile.

If your Instagram account is connected to your Facebook, the platform will automatically extract the information from its mother network.

Why is this information necessary?

There are two main reasons Instagram wants you to provide your date of birth. The first one is a common justification Instagram uses for new features. The platform wants to personalize your experience on the platform further.

The second reason is the protection of children and teenagers. Instagram wants “to create safer, more private experiences for young people”, the company stated in a blog post.

While the platform only allows users from an age of 13, Instagram wants to better protect its youngest users.

In the past, the platform has installed several protective measures for teens. For example, Instagram sets profiles from users under 16 on private by default.

The platform also doesn’t allow adults to message teenagers under 18 if they don’t follow them. It also excludes the content of public accounts from teenagers from its Explore Page.

Conclusion: There is no getting around it

If you want to use your Instagram account normally in the foreseeing future, you should definitely insert your date of birth when the app asks you to do so. If you decide against it, Instagram may block your account sooner or later. Storrito helps with the creation of Instagram Stories. The platform can be used within a team to create and schedule Stories.