Instagram has begun rolling out new privacy controls for its users. The giant photo-sharing platform Facebook bought in 2012 for $1 billion will now let users decide who can slide in your DMs.
Instagram will now allow users to choose options such as Everybody that allows users to receive new message requests from everyone except those that they have blocked.
Choosing Only People You Follow option makes sure you won’t receive any new message request ad story replies from people you don’t follow.
People you don’t follow and you haven’t blocked will know that you won’t accept messages from everyone. This means no more random DMs from strangers.
These options will also limit who which group threads you get added to or reply to your story.
Another thing Instagram announced is that they will begin asking users creating new accounts for their birthdays in their effort to discourage underage users. Instagram’s new terms of use now call for users to be at least 13 years of age in most countries.
This comes a day after TikTok, another rival social media app recently announced that its age limit is 18 for fan gifts to celebrities following a BBC investigation.
A day after this piece, Instagram says it will have users input their birthdays when signing up. https://t.co/IJCDxKraLe https://t.co/7GHbPaDhV5
— Sarah Frier (@sarahfrier) December 4, 2019
Instagram hopes that this move will help keep young people safer and enable more age-appropriate experiences overall.
"To protect minors, expand alcohol ads" is beautiful https://t.co/j6fl4J5VwQ
— Tom Gara (@tomgara) December 4, 2019
When you provide your birthday, other users won’t be able to view it but you’ll still see it in your personal profile information. If you connect your Facebook account to Instagram, the birthday listed on your Facebook profile is added to your Instagram profile.
Users who have already have an account on the platform will not be asked to confirm their birthdays.
This *is* a step in the right direction, but pulling birth date info from Facebook dives into the "one true identity" Zuckerberg philosophy a lot further than Instagram has before.
And, yes, like all social media platforms, nothing stops kids simply lying about their age. https://t.co/TiODqOLWBW
— Tama Leaver (@tamaleaver) December 4, 2019
Instagram is also looking to age-gate business accounts. When Instagram began testing hiding the like counts, teens and underage users started turning their private profiles to business accounts to access that audience data which exposed their contact info such as email address and or phone number – almost two million 12 to 15-year-olds on Instagram currently have their email address and or phone number publicly listed on their profiles which is a significant privacy issue.
Instagram will now soo start checking the age of the users wanting to change their profiles ad will include a ‘Minimum age’ qualifier on business accounts.
It had been revealed by reverse-engineer Jane in mid-October this year.
Instagram is testing age restriction for business accounts pic.twitter.com/Xrlc3gAPyH
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) October 17, 2019
What they’re saying
oh no kids will never figure out how to set their birthdays to Jan 1 1975 like i did in 2006 on myspace https://t.co/iwfKexzQ5R
— wooloo fan accou (@nicebigdog) December 4, 2019
Millions of tweens burying their heads in their hands in despair, just unable to figure out how to illicitly join Instagram if it’s going to ask for their birthday https://t.co/yza2PhpbYn
— Tim Marchman (@timmarchman) December 4, 2019
Instagram went from “no-comment” on my find to “OMG yes-comment!!! We protect kids!!! omg COPPA plsss we luv u!!” the very next day after @JoshConstine’s piece 😂https://t.co/sDgnYvC2Q2
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) December 4, 2019
How will this work for parents setting up pages for their children? Will you do age verification to prove people are over 18? @FAcebook has previously allowed people to list their age as 99. Will this still be an option? What sort of oversight will be in place; human or bot?
— Sinnamon Love | New York City (@SinnamonLove) December 4, 2019
Keep up with all things Instagram here.
