Instagram, owned by Meta, has announced new features aimed at protecting teens from sextortion on the platform. The social media giant will now prevent users from being able to screenshot or screen-record images and videos intended to be viewed once, in an effort to prevent scammers from blackmailing individuals over intimate content.
The NSPCC has praised Instagram’s efforts as a “step in the right direction”, but has called for similar preventative measures to be rolled out on WhatsApp, where grooming and sextortion also occur at scale. Law enforcement agencies worldwide have reported a rise in sextortion scams targeting teenage boys, with the UK’s Internet Watch Foundation stating that 91% of sextortion reports in 2023 related to boys.
Meta’s head of global safety, Antigone Davis, emphasized the importance of educating children and parents on how to spot sextortion attempts, as scammers may try to evade the platform’s detection tools. The new Instagram campaign aims to provide information on recognizing and preventing sextortion, with built-in protections to help safeguard teens.
Sextortion, a form of blackmail where scammers trick individuals into sending explicit material before threatening to share it publicly, has become a prevalent issue online. The emotional toll on victims, who may feel shame, stress, and isolation, has even led some to take their own lives. Meta’s new safety features, including blurring nude images in messages and hiding follower lists, are part of ongoing efforts to combat this harmful behavior.
While some parents and experts have raised concerns about shifting responsibility onto them to monitor teen accounts, Dame Melanie Dawes of Ofcom emphasized that it is the responsibility of social media companies to ensure the safety of users online. With fines looming for companies that fail to protect children, Instagram’s latest measures are a crucial step towards creating a safer online environment for all.
