Instagram will now require users to enter their date of birth when they sign up for the platform, to prevent anyone under the age of 13 from joining.

While the Facebook-owned platform has required users to be over 13 as part of its Terms of Use for some time now, this extra layer of enforcement serves as a way to “keep young people safer and enable more age-appropriate experiences overall”.

Birthdays will not be publically visible and if the user has connected their Facebook account with their Instagram account it will be added automatically.

As well as creating a safer experience, Instagram says the change will also help create ‘age-appropriate’ experiences.

“We will use the birthday information you share with us to create more tailored experiences, such as education around account controls and recommended privacy settings for young people,” Instagram said.

The update will also include new controls around messaging.

Users will now be able to control who can send them direct messages, with the platform introducing an ‘Only People You Follow’ control.

“This gives you the ability to allow only people you follow to message and add you to group threads. People who enable this setting will no longer receive messages, group message requests or story replies from anyone they have not chosen to follow,” Instagram said.