New Instagram Sextortion Prevention Tools
Instagram has introduced new sextortion prevention features to help stop sextortion on the platform by blocking the ability to screenshot or screen-record images and videos intended for single-view. This move is part of Meta’s ongoing efforts to protect users, particularly teenagers, from scams involving intimate images.
Meta’s Sextortion Prevention Tools
Meta, Instagram’s parent company, announced these new sextortion prevention tools on Thursday. The aim is to prevent scammers from tricking teens into sending explicit images that could be used for blackmail. The company will also make permanent previously tested features that blur nude images in messages and hide follower and following lists from potential sextortion accounts.
Support and Criticism of New Features
The UK’s communications watchdog, Ofcom, has warned social media companies of possible fines if they fail to keep children safe online. The NSPCC has called Instagram’s new sextortion prevention measures a “step in the right direction.” However, they raised questions about why similar protections are not available on all Meta-owned platforms, such as WhatsApp, where grooming and sextortion are also prevalent.
Sextortion Targeting Teenage Boys
Sextortion has become a growing issue worldwide, with law enforcement agencies reporting an increase in such scams, often targeting teenage boys. In 2023, the UK’s Internet Watch Foundation noted that 91% of the sextortion reports it received involved boys.
New Instagram Sextortion Prevention Tools
One of the key updates is blocking the ability to screenshot images and videos sent with Instagram’s “view once” or “allow replay” settings. This feature applies to both mobile and web versions of Instagram. Meta’s head of global safety, Antigone Davis, explained that the company has also launched a campaign to educate children and parents on how to identify sextortion attempts.
“We have put in built-in protections so that parents do not have to do a thing to try and protect their teens,” Davis told BBC News. She acknowledged, however, that extortion scammers are likely to try evading these new safeguards, calling sextortion an “adversarial crime.”
Sextortion’s Impact on Victims
Sextortion involves scammers deceiving individuals into sending sexually explicit material and then using that material to blackmail them. Victims of sextortion often experience severe stress, shame, and isolation. In some tragic cases, this leads to suicide.
One such victim was 16-year-old Murray Dowey, who took his own life in 2023 after being targeted by a sextortion gang on Instagram. His mother, Ros Dowey, has expressed frustration at Meta for not doing enough to protect young users from such threats.
Built-in Sextortion Protections for Teens
Meta has promised that the new sextortion prevention features, alongside existing tools, will improve safety for teens. These changes include hiding follower and following lists from accounts suspected of sextortion. Sextortion expert Paul Raffile explained that sextorters often use follower lists to locate potential victims by searching for high schools and youth sports teams.
Teen Account Features
Meta has also started moving under-18 users into stricter “Teen Account” experiences on Instagram. Default settings provide enhanced security, and parental supervision is now required for younger teens to change these settings. Despite these measures, some parents and experts argue that safety controls still place too much responsibility on families to monitor potential threats.
Responsibility for Online Safety
Dame Melanie Dawes, chief executive of Ofcom, stated that ensuring user safety should be the responsibility of the companies themselves, not the parents or children. This statement comes as the Online Safety Act is set to come into effect next year.
External link: BBC article on Instagram’s new features
Internal link: Related articles on online safety
