Instagram is introducing new measures to protect minors from sextortion on their social network. The platform will automatically enable nudity protection for minors’ accounts, while adults will receive a prompt to turn it on. Nude photos sent in direct messages will be blurred initially, giving users the option to view them or not. Those attempting to send nude photos will be reminded to be cautious, and recipients will receive blurred images.
Meta, the parent company of Instagram, has faced criticism in the United States and France for not adequately prioritizing the mental health of teenage users. In January, they introduced initial measures to provide better protection for young users, such as requiring explicit parental consent to make accounts public. The European Commission is conducting investigations into Meta, Snap (Snapchat), TikTok, and YouTube regarding the measures taken to safeguard the physical and mental health of minors.
Instagram is taking action against sextortion by implementing new measures that limit the ability of accounts suspected of being involved in this behavior to contact underage users on their platform. For example, these accounts will no longer be able to send direct messages to minors. These new measures will first be tested in Central and Latin American countries starting in May before being implemented worldwide.
