Instagram has introduced new safety features to prevent sextortion schemes, aiming to protect users, especially teenagers, from online harm.
The safety changes include the implementation of safety notices in direct messages and Messenger to inform teen users if they are conversing with someone potentially located in a different country, as well as restricting accounts engaged in suspicious behavior from viewing follower lists and engaged accounts.
The big picture: To protect against sextortion, new features will prevent users from screenshotting or screen recording images or videos sent in Instagram direct messages or Messenger without the person’s consent.
- Additionally, an nudity protection feature will blur and warn recipients before teens open potentially explicit images.
- In the US, users will have access to a Crisis Text Line, enabling them to chat live with a volunteer crisis counselor over Instagram direct messages or Messenger.
What we’re watching: Instagram also plans to launch an educational video campaign to make users aware of signs of sextortion scams and provide steps for users to defend themselves.
- This campaign follows the platform’s collaboration with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and Thorn, an organization focused on safeguarding children from sexual abuse.
