Instagram unveils new tools to protect teens from online blackmail

Instagram is rolling out new settings to fight sextortion a type of blackmail that uses sexual content to pressure victims (often teens) into paying money. The crime is becoming more common with some organized groups working together to pressure teenagers into sharing nude photos.

Meta stated on 10/17/2024 that the settings such as hiding teens follower lists from potential blackmailers make it harder for criminals to connect with young people on the photo-sharing app and give teens more resources to learn the signs of a sex scam.

Instagram will also show teens in the US‚ UK‚ Canada and Australia a video in their feeds about how to “spot sextortion scams“. The apps “nudity protection“ feature which blurs potentially nude images and nudges teens before they send one‚ will be on automatically for teen accounts globally. Users cant no longer screenshot ephemeral messages in the appʼs chat – one way that scammers get hold of sensitive images said Antigone Davis Metas global head of safety.

The update comes just weeks after Meta rolled out new “teen accounts“ with extra protections and more visibility for parents. Facing outcry from parents and legislators about teen safety online the company says its working with child safety experts to continually build out its features. Critics have pushed back saying Meta uses incremental safety improvements to distract from larger issues – such as Instagrams alleged negative effects on the health of children and teens.

Davis said sextortion is a growing problem on Instagram. Scammers befriend a victim often claiming to live in the same country and be the same age then ask for explicit photos. Scammers threaten victims with exposing the pictures and ask for money to keep them private.

What weʼre seeing is a financial crime now‚ where people are doing this to extort money

Part of this effort happens behind the scenes: Meta said its taken down 63000 accounts associated with sextortion rings including thousands of accounts from the same Nigeria-based collective.

Instagram has steadily added what it calls teen safety features during the last three years but pressure on the company to address online harms including sex abuse and bullying has still mounted. Last year 41 states and D.C. sued Meta for allegedly building addictive features into its apps. A handful of states including Florida and Ohio have passed laws restricting social media use among teens

This year the FBI warned that young men between 14 and 17 are increasingly being targeted by sextortion scammers – many of whom are located outside the United States. Financially motivated sextortion incidents involving minors increased 20 percent between January and June 2024 compared with the same time period the year before according to the FBI. Those crimes can have dangerous consequences: From April 2023 to September 2024 federal officials identified at least 12600 victims. Twenty of the cases were suicides according to the FBI