Instagram To Require Birth Dates In Move To Block Underage Use

Instagram has said that it would require new users to verify they are at least 13 when they join the visually focused, Facebook-owned social network. The move aims to help Instagram comply with a US law and its own policies that require any user to be at least 13. "Asking for this information will help prevent underage people from joining Instagram, help us keep young people safer and enable more age-appropriate experiences overall," an Instagram blog said.

The company said the age information would not be visible to others but would help in creating "age-appropriate and safer experiences" on the social network with more than a billion users. It was not immediately clear how Instagram would protect against young people providing false information, which has been a persistent issue for social media.

The announcement came a day after a TechCrunch article which noted that Instagram did not follow the example of most of its social media peers in checking the ages of users, which could put the network in violation of the Child Online Privacy Protection Act.

The article noted that Facebook and Instagram both employed moderators who may lock the accounts of any users they suspect are under 13.

Previously, fresh rules were introduced by Instagram that ramped up a ban on images that might encourage suicide or self harm. The Facebook-owned image and video sharing service early this year clamped down on images of self-injury after a British teen who went online to read about suicide took her own life.

"We will no longer allow fictional depictions of self-harm or suicide on Instagram, such as drawings or memes or content from films or comics that use graphic imagery," Instagram chief Adam Mosseri had said in blog post.

"We will also remove other imagery that may not show self-harm or suicide, but does include associated materials or methods." Instagram has never allowed posts that promote or encourage suicide or self-harm.

It also banned hashtags -- words featuring a "#" that mark a trending topic -- relating to self-harm. The measures were meant to make such images more difficult to find for depressed teens who might have suicidal tendencies.