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People will now have to provide their birthday if they're creating a new Instagram account.

Up until now, users have just had to confirm that they are at least 13 years old to be able to use Instagram.

The social media company says that knowing someone's age means they can recommend specific privacy settings or generate in-app information about staying safe online.

Once submitted, birthdays will be hidden from other users. Existing users won't have to add their birthdays.

Having to add birthdays comes after calls for social media companies including, Instagram, to do more to make their sites and apps safer for young people.

Instagram told the Reuters news service that it won't verify birthdates, but it thinks people will be honest about their birth dates, and it might eventually rely on artificial intelligence (AI) to help know how old users are.

The AI will look at the posts people make and the hashtags they use to figure out someone's age.

Instagram has also unveiled another new safety feature allowing users to block direct messages from people they do not follow.

Instagrammers with lots of followers will be able to block some of their posts if they think they aren't appropriate to younger users.

For more information and advice about staying safe online head to �鶹Լ�� Own It.