Instagram has revealed a number of new security measures designed to shield users—especially teenagers—from the escalating risk of sextortion schemes. Sextortion is an unsettling crime in which con artists threaten to reveal private images in order to demand money or favours from its victims.
With these new steps, which include prohibiting screenshots of sensitive content, hiding follower and following lists, and rolling out nudity protection globally, the social media platform said it hopes to fortify its defences and make it more difficult for scammers to take advantage of users.
“These actions are part of a larger campaign informed by leading safety organisations like NCMEC, Thorn, and Childnet, which aims to empower families in the fight against online exploitation,” Instagram says.
“Accounts displaying potentially fraudulent behaviour will no longer be able to view users’ follower or following lists, which is a common way for sextortion criminals to target individuals,” Instagram stated.
“We will shortly stop users from using the “see once” or “allow replay” features to capture screenshots or screen recordings of transient images or videos delivered in direct messages.
“In order to avoid feature circumvention, this safeguard is also applied to Instagram’s web version. Instagram is rolling out its nudity protection function worldwide, which blurs private photos in direct messages. This feature alerts users about the dangers of sending sensitive content and is enabled by default for minors under the age of 18.
“New measures to protect teen accounts The recently launched teen accounts on Instagram, accessible to users under the age of 18, come with built-in safeguards that restrict who may reach teenagers, what they can view, and how much time they can spend online.
“These accounts force teenagers into more stringent message settings by default, making it impossible for them to receive messages from people they don’t follow or have any connection to.”
