Instagram is making a new change to itspolicy, that will require users to submit their date of birth to the company. If you don’t share your birthday after repeated reminders, you won’t be able to use the service. The company said that this feature will help it improve user safety, and allow the platform to build out more features to that end. Over the past few months, Instagram has built a ton of tools related to teen safety....

If you search for a keyword on any social media or content serving website, you expect to get suggestions for related posts, images, or videos. However, on Instagram, all you get are accounts, hashtags, and places as search results. Annoying. Thankfully, the company is working on changing this approach. Last night, the firm’s head,Adam Mosseri, said that it’s working on a “full search result page” that will show photos and videos as results, along with tabs for accounts and hashtags....

Instagram is finally adding another much-needed layer of protection from harassment to your inbox: from now on, it’ll “automatically filter DM requests containing offensive words, phrases, and emojis, so you never have to see them.” The idea is that this should prevent strangers sending you hateful messages; pings from people you don’t know are already filtered into a separate inbox, so this takes things one step further. [Read:3 new technologies ecommerce brands can use to connect better with customers]...

In the movieAvengers: Endgame, Thanos says, “I am inevitable.” If you think of the internet, Thanos is ads. If you’re using a free product,it’s usually just a matter of time before ads creep into it. That is what’s happening with Instagram Reels — the company’s TikTok rival. Facebook is now introducing ads as long as 30 seconds in between Reels on the app. These ads will havea small “Sponsored” label with the advertiser’s name....

After accusations of ignoringmental health impact on teensusing Instagram, Facebook will roll out new measures to make amends. These measures include warnings for consuming too much harmful content, parental control on content, and a “take a break” prompt. Speaking on CNN’sState of Unionshow last night, Nick Clegg, Facebook’s VP of global affairs, said the nudge feature will warn teens looking at harmful content repeatedly: We’re going to introduce something which I think will make a considerable difference, which is where our systems see that the teenager is looking at the same content over and over again and it’s content which may not be conducive to their well-being, we will nudge them to look at other content...