Instagram changed advertising and privacy policies to protect teenagers

Instagram announced it will change its advertising policy to reduce hypertargeted ads to teens. Advertisers will no longer be able to use age, gender, and location to display ads to users under 18. New Instagram accounts created by users under 16 will also be private by default. In addition, the company said it is currently developing technology to stop accounts with suspicious behavior from seeing or interacting with people under 18. Moreover, the company is using artificial intelligence to try to verify users’ ages. Birthday messages direct to a user can be used to detect their age.