Facebook's Instagram has announced it will ask new users to confirm that they are at least 13 years old when they join.
The move aims to help Instagram comply with United States law and its own policies that require that any user of any medium on the Internet be at least 13 years old.
As stated in one of the blogs, "Instagram", "The request for this information will help prevent people under the legal age from joining Instagram, and help us to keep young people safer."
The company said that age-related information will not be visible to others, but it will help create "safer, age-appropriate experiences" for users of this social network of more than a billion users.
Moreover, it is not yet clear how the network will behave in the face of misinformation provided by users, which is an ongoing problem for social media.
The announcement came a day after an article on “TechCrunch,” which indicated that “Instagram” did not follow the example of most social media in verifying users ’ages, which could put the network facing a charge of violating the child’s privacy protection law via the Internet.
The article pointed out that "Instagram" and "Facebook" are working to close the accounts of people suspected of being under the age of 13.